Empty Spaces
by x-Sari
Summary: Max has a strange emptiness inside her and she doesn't know why. She feels like an unwanted expirament. She can only rely on her flock, and now that's falling apart. Allianaces are questioned, trust is broken, people are betrayed, and for what? Nothing?..
1. Bad Writing

_Well, here's my first Maximum Ride story. It's going to be kind of long because I wanted details, but I hope you like it._

_Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride or any of the characters, but I wish I did. I also do not want to be sued, so that's why I have a disclaimer before every story, thanks for asking._

----x----

**MAX'S POV**

"Hey Max? I was just kind of wondering what we are going to do next. I mean, we practically defeated Itex already, so what else is left for us to do? Are we going to go look for out parents, or return to the Institute, or maybe we're going to investigate the tunnel under the normal school by Anne's house because we never really figured out what that was all about…" Nudge asked me. We had just taken off and were flying Northeast, and already Nudge was talking. I was hoping for silence for at least a little while so I could think, because honestly, I didn't really know the answer to her question.

The flock and I had just left Mom's house and I was missing her already. She and Ella were the only real blood family I had. Well, besides Jeb. And I had only recently discovered that he was my dad, and Dr. Martinez was my mom.

Honestly, I had no clue where to begin. Sounds just like your big, smart leader right? Sure, being only 14 and having to take care of a bunch of kids and planning to save the world is hard, but hey, usually I was dang good at it. Still, sometimes I missed when it was just the six of us and Jeb, at our house back in the mountains. Back then, Jeb was is charge, and I didn't have to worry about being a leader. Back then, we hadn't yet known that Jeb was a traitor who was really working for the school, but would eventually double cross the school and help us, then tell me he was my dad. Complicated, right? Let's not get into details.

"Or we could start by…" Nudge still, aka the eleven year old motor mouth. She really needed to stop that.

The more I thought about it, the more I missed having a place to live. I missed having a home and having the same bed to sleep in every night, instead of whatever cave or mountainside was convenient. And even if having a new home was only the beginning of our plans, that didn't mean we couldn't leave the house to go out and do all of the other things necessary for saving the world, which as I've been repeatedly told is my destiny.

I felt wings brushing mine. I looked. It was Fang. Fang was also 14, and he was defiantly my best friend out of the flock. Recently, the flock split in half and all I could think about was Fang, and how much I missed him and the others. When we were finally reunited, I finally felt the emptiness in me lift. Something happened when we reunited that day, but I wasn't quite sure what. All I was sure of was I had never been so happy to see someone before in my life. We definitely had some talking to do, that's for sure. We hadn't gotten a chance to since we were all back together. He raised his eyebrows.

"You ok?" He said. Apparently I was taking too long to answer Nudge's questions. I nodded.

"So is your plan to just fly around for the rest of our lives, or do we actually have strategy?" Demanded Iggy, in his usual style. Iggy, also 14, and blind from an experiment at the school gone wrong, was known for his lack of patience and his amazing gift with weaponry, bombs in particular. Gazzy, also known as the Gasman, was Iggy's usual partner in crime. Which you may think is odd, considering that he is only 8 and should probably not be involved with bombs just yet. But not much normal about us. We are avian-human hybrids. We've got wings, for Christ's sake.

"Yeah, I think I've got a plan. I think we should find a home," I said. I was a little unsure about how this would be received by the flock, considering that our last real home had been with Jeb, and we all know how that ended. The only other real home we had had was with Ann, and that didn't go so well either, considering that she was the head honcho of the school, the place that did crazy experiments on us from when we were born. Until we escaped that is. The main reason I wanted to build a new home is that it would give the kids comfort………. and give me time to think of a real plan. "We need our own home again. Are you guys up for it?"

"I am," said Angel, my 6 year old sweetheart.

"Me too," said Gazzy, automatically agreeing with his little sister.

"A home? We haven't had one of those in along time! Let's do it!" Iggy cheered. Fang nodded.

"Alright, let's keep flying northeast then, and look for places along the way." So that's what we did. We all flew for about three hours, stopping occasionally when we thought we saw a good place. The first place we stopped was on a rocky mountain side, about ten miles away from a town, and well hidden. The only down side was that it would be too hard to build a house there because of the rocks. The next few places that we stopped at had similar problems: too rocky, not well enough hidden, bad water source. We had now been flying around for about our sixth hour and still no luck on finding a good place for our home. But hey, we didn't have to find a home right now. We had along time to look.

"Hey Max? I'm hungry," Total whined from Fang's backpack. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that we have a talking dog as our pet? The flock voiced their agreements. It was starting to get dark, and we had been looking for a home all day with no luck. We found a cave and decided to spend the night there. The kids set up camp and Fang and I went to search for food. We both hid our wings and ordered McDonald's to go using the credit card that Jeb got me. We got back to the cave and ate, and no matter how strong I am, I sill whimper with delight every time I take a bite of those delicious burgers. I was exhausted. I could feel my eyes closing as I listened to everyone still telling stories about when we were apart.

"And then Fang and grabbed a gun and started shooting everything in sight. He almost shot me!" Gazzy said, showing us patched up bullet holes in his jeans. Nudge whistled.

" Close call, Gasman," she said. I opened my eyes and looked at Fang. _Guns?_ I mouthed silently. He smiled at me, lighting up his immediate area.

"I've decided to petition against your no-gun policy. They work brilliantly." I laughed at him.

"And the bullet holes in Gazzy's jeans are a perfect testimony as to why we are a no-gun flock," I countered. I looked at Angel and Total. They had both fallen asleep next to the fire. Angel had her arm around Total and was mumbling in her sleep. I looked at Nudge. She was yawning. "Alright guys, to be continued. I think we're all tired. We need to get some sleep." I banked the fire and put a blanket over Angel and Total, then leaned against the cave wall. "Iggy, first watch." I said. I watched him go sit near the front of the cave. All was well. I waited until the flock was asleep, then I allowed myself to sleep too…

----x----

I woke up to the smell of bacon. Iggy was cooking breakfast and everyone was getting packing up. Who can sleep through the smell of delicious bacon? I wasn't ready to start being a leader yet, so I closed my eyes and pretended I was still asleep. I could hear the keys of Fang's wireless laptop as he updated his blog, I could feel the others setting up breakfast or cleaning up our mess or whatever. I was slowly falling back asleep.

_Rise and shine, Max, it's time to take control._

'Oh god no,' I thought. The voice was finally back. Jeb's voice, which had been inside my head for about a year now giving me advice.

'Go away,' I thought back.

_I can't, Max. You're looking for a home for the flock and I have one for you._ Although it was tempting to ignore him and fall back asleep, I was not looking forward to building a home from scratch and decorating it. _It is only a few hours' flight from where you are. It is already fully built and decorated, with working water and heat and electricity._ I hated to say it, but Jeb knew me well. He knew that that was exactly the thing to say to make me want to live there.

'I'm listening,' I thought back. Before I knew what was happening, the flock was on our way.

----x----

"Are you sure you trust Jeb?" Fang whispered in my ear. We were now standing on a very narrow ledge of a mountain. In front of me, I could see a well hidden door, barley visible among the rocks. The truth was I wasn't sure. I had no idea if I should trust him. Just inside could be Jeb and a bunch of Erasers or Flyboys or Omega, there to take us away or kill us

"Nope," I said, but I pulled the door open anyways.

----x----

"Wait here," Max said, stepping inside.

"Why?" Gazzy asked Fang. Fang could see that he was itching to go inside and see the house. Fang was too. He was also excited at the concept of safety, food, and running water.

"We don't know what is in the house." He replied.

"Could be a trap," Iggy said. Fang nodded. They waited in silence for awhile while Nudge rambled on about how excited she was.

"Maybe we all have our own rooms. Maybe mine will be purple with butterflies. Maybe there will be a TV! With cable! I would love that! I hope it isn't a trap…" Five minutes later, the door creaked back open. Fang was unsure what would come out- a Flyboy or Max. It was the later.

"Hey guys, check out our totally awesome new home!" She exclaimed.

----x----

_What do you think of the first chapter?? It was kind of fast paced, but I wanted to get all of the boring stuff out of the way so I could get into the main story. More soon._

_Sarah_


	2. Home?

_Here we go, chapter two. Please leave a comment if you read, it makes me feel like there is a reason to continue posting chapters. If I do not have at least 5 reviews from chapter one and two, I am discontinuing. _

----x----

I personally thought that this new home was amazing. Everything was so high Tec and perfect. We found a room for each of us, all designed according to our likes. There was a huge family room with two TV's and an ultra fast computer. There were two bathrooms and a kitchen with a refrigerator that was huge and stocked with food. There was even a security system. I could not believe that Jeb had this built for us. Everything was in the house. There were even different colored tooth brushes for all of us. If we wanted to, we could probably stay in this house forever. The rest of the flock seemed to like the house too. Even Iggy, who hated new places, had adjusted and knew roughly where everything was, even though it had not even been two weeks in the house yet. Yes, that's right people, two weeks, free of problems. Everything had gone perfectly. Sure, the first few nights I could barley sleep because I was sure that Omega or Jeb would burst in at any moment, but now I could finally start to unwind. In those first two weeks, we had just relaxed. We slept and ate a lot, and never left the house. We cooked real meals every night, like I was doing now. I had made Angel, Gazzy, and Fang pull away from the TV and set the table while Nudge and Iggy and I cooked dinner.

"The feast is ready," Nudge pronounced moments later, smiling. She took the massive steaks out of the oven using an oven mitt and placed the plate in the middle of our new table. Iggy placed the rest of the food on the table while I pulled Gazzy away from the TV again.

"You can watch MTV later, Gasman," I said. "I'm sure they will still be pimpin' rides after we finish dinner." I said with my usual sarcasm. Eventually we all sat down at the table and loaded our plates up with steaming food. I looked around at my flock, glad that we were back together and safe. We had spent months on the run and in hiding, always ready for the next attack to come. And I couldn't help thinking that that was all ending. We had a home now that we were pretty sure was safe, which we had wanted for a long time. The house was safe and secluded and everything we needed. And as far as we knew, no one was hunting us. So I couldn't help but to think that maybe, finally, we had gotten lucky. Maybe our lives were starting to improve. I looked at everyone. My flock was all smiling and laughing and happy. They were safe. That was all that mattered to me.

----x----

"Max, will you go get my blanket for me?" Angel asked me after dinner. She looked up at me sweetly. "I'm cold." Of course, I couldn't say no to Angel, so I said that I would and went to her room to get it. Angel's room was very pink. She had a princess bed and there was lace everywhere. It looked like a princess slash ballerina slash flower attack all channeled into one room. At the same time however, it seemed very Angel. And she did tell me that she loved her room. I sat down on her pink bed and opened her pink backpack and grabbed her favorite pink and worn blanket.

Suddenly, it was like something was pressing me to the floor. My head felt like it was about to explode. Of course. Something HAD to happen now, just when everything was starting to be so perfect. Two weeks of nothing going wrong, and so of course it couldn't stay that way. Images were flashing before my eyes, numbers, letters, and scenes. A dark hallway and the slam of a heavy door. Then there were a thousand different voices talking at the same time, and someone's scream. I couldn't think, couldn't cry out for help, couldn't even breathe... All I could think was that this was exactly the same as before and I would willingly die, as long as this pain would stop stop stop!

----x----

Fang sensed that something was wrong. Angel was sill shivering, and Max hadn't come back from getting her blanket. He decided to go see what was up. The door to Angel's room was open a crack and he pushed it open. Angel's blanket was on her bed. Her backpack had been knocked over and the contents were everywhere. And on the floor, next to the bed, was Max. Fang ran to Max's side and knelt next to her.

"Max, Max, it's ok, it's ok," he said. She was shaking like she was having a seizure and she was holding onto her head. She was gasping like she couldn't breathe and tears were rolling down her face. He didn't know what to do. He acted instinctively. Fang grabbed Max and held her shaking body. He was surprised to feel rare tears come to his own eyes at seeing Max this way: shaking and vulnerable, and Fang knew there was nothing he could do to help her. That was what was killing him the most: Max was in pain and Fang couldn't do anything to help her. He couldn't make it stop, he couldn't take it on himself, and he couldn't beat it up or kill it. All he could do was hold her and hope she would be ok. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close, as if that would stop the shaking. He remembered when they had split up. He felt like he was ripped in two. Then he remembered what happened when he saw her again……

_**FLASHBACK**_

_It had seemed like forever of waiting with Iggy and Gazzy, but finally, finally, he saw them circling down and landing on the beach. His heart was filled with happiness, but as usual, he didn't let it show. Fang stepped out from the shadows. _

"_You're late." He had said. Then Max saw him and her whole face lit up. Fang started to walk casually towards her, even though he was dying to run and hug her and just hold her and apologize millions of times for leaving her…And Angel and Total and Nudge. But it was she who ran to him, kicking up sand, her wings flying out behind her. They smashed together awkwardly. She threw her arms around his neck and held him tightly and put her head on his shoulder. He slowly put his arms around her too, and he hugged her back just as tight._

"_Don't ever leave me again," she said, her voice sounding small and most un-Maxish. She almost sounded like she was going to cry. He could only imagine how upset she must have been to sound this way. He, too, had been hurting. Not seeing Max everyday was horrible. No matter how mad he was at her, he should not have left._

"_I won't," Fang promised into her hair. He sounded unlike himself too. Fang thought of everything that they had been through together, and he knew as he hugged her that he couldn't leave again. Now that they were reunited, he felt complete. Going anywhere or doing anything without Max had made him feel like a part of him was missing. And now that he had her back, he made a silent promise to himself that he would never let anything happen to her again. He didn't even want to let her out of his arms, much less out of his sight. "I won't. Not ever."_

_**END FLASHBACK**_

Seeing Max in pain made him feel the same ache as when they had been apart. He felt like he was being ripped in two all over again. He felt like he was breaking his promise to himself: Max was hurting. If only Max knew how much he cared about her... How much he was scared that something was wrong with her...… Slowly, she stopped shaking. She was ice cold. Max opened her beautiful eyes. Relief flooded him.

"Fang?" She asked. She sounded weak and tired. "What happened?"

----x----

"What happened?" I asked, closing my eyes again. I felt very cold.

"I don't know," he said softly. He sounded worried. "You had one of those brain attacks, like you used to have. You didn't come back with Angel's blanket, so I came to find you," I felt myself nod. "You scared me, Max," he whispered, so softly that I almost was sure I imagined it. I opened my eyes. Wow. Fang never talks about his emotions or anything, so for him to admit that he was scared must have been really hard for him. I realized that he was holding me.

I was so close to Fang… He brushed my arm, ever so softly. I looked at him and noticed that he was already looking at me. I opened my mouth to say something, but words did not come. All I would have to do is lift my chin and we would be kissing. I reached up and pushed his long hair out of his eyes. I had never noticed how striking they were before because I had hardly ever been this close to him before. Fang reached out and put his hand behind my neck and pulled me gently to him. His had lips barley brushed mine when I heard Iggy yell that the movie was starting and to get out there. I pulled back. What was I doing? This was FANG. He was one of my flock. Practically my brother. We had kissed once before, and we were awquard for weeks after. That could not happen again. I jumped away from him and grabbed Angel's blanket and ran from the room.

----x----

Fang didn't say anything about what had happened, and I didn't either. He kept giving me weird looks, though. Angel, Gazzy, and Nudge seemed to like the movie, but Iggy appeared irritated because he couldn't see it and Fang seemed to be lost in thought.

"Go get ready for bed," I told everyone when the movie finished. They did. I brushed my teeth and slipped into my comfy shorts and my favorite baggy grey tee that had once belonged to Jeb, then Iggy and Fang, and now me. I went in to make sure Nudge was in bed, and she was. She was half asleep already. The Gasman was too. Iggy was climbing into his bed when I opened the door. He told me he was too old for me to keep checking up on him, but I ignored him and said goodnight. Next I checked on Angel and Total. Total had climbed into Angel's bed with her and they were both asleep. Then I took a deep breath and knocked on Fang's door. A moment later he pushed the door opened and he was standing there, still in his clothes from the day. He sat at his desk, in front of his lap top, so I flopped down on his bed.

"So are you going to tell me about your brain attack now?" He asked. I shot him a look then smiled.

"Yes," I said. He closed his laptop and turned around in his chair.

"I'm listening," he replied.

"I don't know what happened, really. I was just getting Angel's blanket and then the brain attack started." He paused.

"Why do you think that you started getting them again?"

"No clue," I said. "I have a feeling, though.. I'm not sure what it is. But I can tell that something bad is about to happen. Again." Fang just looked at me as if he expected me to say more, but I didn't know what to say. I didn't really know what I was saying. "Fang… If something happens to me, I mean, if…. Would you take care of the flock and not worry about me?" I looked at the floor. I couldn't meet Fang's eyes anymore. He came over and sat by me.

"We'll worry about that if it happens." He said, still looking at me.

"But what if something does? Promise me that you'll take care of them." He looked at me and seemed to reflect on it.

"Promise," he said slowly. I let out I sigh of relief and leaned onto his shoulder. The flock was my only family. They were all that mattered. I had spent practically my whole life fighting to protect them, and I couldn't stand it if anything happened to them. He put his arm around me. "Nothing will happen to you, Max. I won't let it."

----x----

_End of chapter 2. I think there was probably too much Fang x Max-ness in this chapter, but I don't care. I think the story is still moving really fast, but that should change next chapter. I don't like feeling like the story is really rushed._

_Sarah_


	3. Shopping Disasters

_Come on, guys. Three reviews? On two chapters? I got 61 hits on the story. Hmm… I know they were two really bad opening chapters, but it's kind of pointless to do this if no one reads. PLEASE comment, it makes me happy and makes my day, really. Sorry to rag on you, bleh. Here's your new chapter._

----x----

I was lying down in a far too bright room. Everything was white. I felt like I was strapped down, because I couldn't move. Strange languages said things to me.

"What are you saying?" I said. They kept talking as if they didn't hear me. "What do you want from me?" My voice sounded far away, as if it were a different voice that was not mine. The voices were blending together. Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Indian, French, and many more were all combining until I couldn't understand it. They were yelling at me, whispering to me, speaking to me. I closed my eyes as tight as I could, as if that could make them stop. I opened my eyes again. Maps, charts, images, words all flashed in front of my eyes. I couldn't understand them. Numbers, voices, faces, they all blurred together. I closed my eyes again. I think I heard myself screaming, but I wasn't sure of anything anymore.

Within seconds, I felt the floor fall away. I was falling, down, down, down, into complete darkness. I tried to stop but couldn't. I threw out my wings but they weren't there. I didn't know what way was up anymore. Then suddenly, I was on my feet again. What was going on? There was a door in front of me. I don't know why, but I felt like I needed to open the door. It seemed like the answers to all my questions were on the other side… I reached for the doorknob, but it moved away from me. I grabbed for it again, but again it moved away. It suddenly flew away. I ran after it. I just had to open that door, I had to know what was on the other side… The closer I ran towards the door, the further away from me it seemed to get. Finally, I fell to my knees in defeat. I closed my eyes and then felt a presence. The door was right in front of me. I pulled the handle, and it opened….. There was a blinding light, then nothing…….

----x----

"Max?" Fang said. My eyes flew open. My hand was extended into the air, reaching for the doorknob. It had all been… A dream. I was lying in my bed, back in the house. I sat up quickly.

"Yeah? What's up?" I said, trying to sound normal.

"It's 11 o'clock. Everyone is wondering where you are," he said. I felt myself nod. I had a headache. "You ok?" He said. I didn't answer. I felt sore and tired, as if I had flown a long ways, although we hadn't really gone anywhere since we came here, two weeks ago now. He sat on the edge of my bed and looked at me. After a minute, he spoke. "You're having the dreams again, aren't you?" He said softly. I nodded again.

"Whatever is coming, we'll kick it's ass like before." I laughed. "And this time, we'll do it together." I was about to reply when little Angel, my baby, burst into the room.

"Good morning, Max!" She said, climbing into my bed with me. She wiggled under the covers. "You slept along time today." I ruffled her hair.

"I sure did," I said. Then the rest of my flock came into the room too. Gazzy sat next to Fang, and Iggy sat in my big comfy chair. Nudge climbed onto the bed too, and even Total jumped onto the bed, using me as his pillow.

"What's the plan today, guys?" I said.

"We were thinking we should go for a flight. Stretch our wings a bit, grab some more food," Iggy said.

"And Fang said we could go shopping!" Nudge exclaimed.

"What?" I exclaimed. "Like, you mean, a mall?"

"Yeah, a mall," she giggled.

"Um, why?" I said.

"For fun," Angel said, giving me the Bambi eyes.

"Ok, go get ready," I sighed in defeat. Gazzy and Nudge cheered. Even Iggy looked happy. They all ran to go get ready. Fang was the last one to leave my room. "The mall? For fun?" I asked him sarcastically.

"Angel's birthday is on Wednesday." He said, closing the door behind him. _Crap!_ Today was Friday! Five days till my baby was seven years old. I had completely forgotten! But the MALL? This should be interesting….

----x----

It turns out that the Mall of America was a three hour flight from where our house was (thank you, map quest). So naturally, wanting the best, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel practically demanded that we go there.

"Absolutely NOT," I said firmly. "The biggest mall in the United States of America? Do you have any idea how many people will be there?" I yelled.

"Please, Max? They have every store you could possibly think of, and three different video arcades!" Gazzy begged.

"Oh, like that will sway me. Remember when you guys had another great idea like this? Remember the football game in Texas? What if someone recognizes us again? I'm pretty sure that The Mall of America is not an open roofed building. HOW would you plan to escape? We'd be trapped if someone recognized us. Next thing you know, we'll be signing autographs! 'Oh, yes sir, would you like an autographed picture of the flock? Yes, those are real flock feathers. Would you like the Iggy or Fang coffee mug?' I don't think so, guys."

"Max," Iggy said. "Even I want to go." I looked around at the flock. And like usual, I forgot about Nudge's dark gift. I looked at her, and saw her Bambi eyes.

"Don't look at me like that," I said to her. She just made her lip quiver.

"Please??" She said. I couldn't say no. Not after Nudge had given me the Bambi eyes.

"Fine." I said. There was ecstatic cheering. Fang gave me his 'you sap' look like he does every time. I was sorely tempted to once again remind him that he was the one who let Angel have a dog, but instead I said, "Whose idea was this mall trip?" He smiled at me anyways.

----x----

Three hours later, I found myself landing in an alley two miles from the mall. It was huge- from the air I could distinctly see it. There were millions of people going to the mall today, it seemed. Didn't these people have lives? Nudge and Gazzy and Angel were practically bursting with excitement.

"Yes, yes yes!" Nudge said. "I love shopping!" She grabbed hold of my hand. "Aren't you excited, Max?" She asked me.

"A million different stores, a million different people, a million opportunities to be recognized and there's no open sky. We'll be trapped like sardines with all of these people, but yes, I am extremely excited to once again be risking our freedom for something stupid." I retorted sarcastically.

"Oh, don't be such a downer," Iggy said. "Even I might enjoy this." He was once again wearing dark sunglasses, and Total had on his "Guide Dog Working" sweater. Just like when we had gone to Disney Land. That seemed like such a long time ago now. Everything had changed. For one thing, Ari was dead. Ari, my half brother, had died due to the school turning him into an Eraser. He had expired less than a month ago in my arms. I shuddered at the memory. Ten minutes later, we, along with what seemed to be half the country, were shuffled into the doors of the mall. It was too big. There were four floors, and every store was packed with people. There was even an ice skating arena inside the freaking mall. We're talking massive, people. How could anyone even FIND the store that they are looking for?

As soon as we walked in the doors, I started to freak out. There were too many people; everyone was crowded together, pushing against us, talking, yelling. I looked at the security cameras, all the people. Any one of them could be Erasers, or their newest replacements. I looked for exits, and there were none except out the way we came in, which was getting further and further away as we walked, or rather, were herded, deeper into the mall. I was vaguely aware of Nudge and Angel baaing like sheep, as they had done in the 'last stopping place' in Germany's Itex headquarters. I could not take this. I stopped walking. Fang crashed into me. He was stiff and ridged, like I was. He grabbed my arm.

"You ok?" He whispered, so he wouldn't worry the others.

"There are too many people here. They are all crowding.. It's too loud and anyone could be an Eraser..." I started to turn around and walk away. He tightened his grip on my arm.

"Max, I feel the same way. But we have to do this for Angel." At that moment, he reached down and slid his hand into mine. "You can do this." His voice was low as he whispered in my ear. I don't know why, but I wanted to believe every word he said. I felt… I don't know….. Safe. Or rather, _safer_. We walked fast and caught up to the flock. Angel and Nudge were practically bouncing off the walls.

"I'm so excited! Where should we go first?" Angel exclaimed. "Hey! Don't step on my dog!" She snapped to a teenager busily yapping on their cell phone. Total growled. They ignored her. We decided to go to an ATM and draw out money. It wasn't hard to find one: they were everywhere in this mall. I swiped the card that Jeb had 'given' us back in New York and typed in the password. I pumped out $300 cash. I gave $50 to everyone in the flock, telling each of them (besides Angel and Total, of course) to buy a good present. We had to split up, because we couldn't buy Angel's presents in front of her. Which I was NOT excited about. If we were in this Eraser packed mall, then I wanted us to be together.

"Angel, I'm going to take you to Build a Bear!" Iggy exclaimed. She was really excited. Apparently, Celeste would have a new friend. The rest of us split up, each going off to buy Angel a present. We were all going to meet back in the alley at 5 o'clock, giving us about 2 and a half hours. I personally could not stand to be in the mall that long. I actually left the mall as soon as we split up and went outside. Once in an alley, I took off and flew. For some reason, being in the air always made me feel better. I swooped around in circles, looking for some less crowded, not attached to the mall stores. While I was looking, I thought about a lot of things. For one, the dreams and headaches were back. Which meant...what? I had no idea. Then there were the usual. Saving the world, making sure the flock was safe… But I kept thinking about one thing. One person, actually. Fang. I had no idea what was going on there. Yes, he was my best friend in the whole wide world. He was my right hand man and always supported me. He was like a brother to me. So why was I having these weird feelings every time I was around him now? Why did we keep kissing, and almost kissing? And just now, in the mall, why did he take my hand?

----x----

Fang had no idea what to buy Angel. She was turning seven, and he wanted to buy the perfect present for her. He wandered in and out of stores filled with bright and glittery… Everything. He was growing tired of the brightness and the too-loud shrieks of little girls and the too-loud over played girl pop music. He, in short, was tired of being in stores where he so clearly did not belong. Fang was also growing tired of all the store clerks giving him weird looks when he walked into little girl stores. Not only did he sick out like a sore thumb being a guy and wearing all black, but he probably looked like a creeper slash pedophile too.

Eventually, he wondered into a book store. He was growing tired of his search for seven year old toys. The book store was old and had dark wood shelves. It seemed as though it were less of a book store and more of a small town library. The store was near deserted, which was like a breath of fresh air compared to the cramped mall. It was also rather quiet. Fang wanted to just fall onto the big comfy old couch and rest, but something caught his eye. It was a book, and the spine was plain black with no writing on it. It was a contrast to the brightly colored, attention grabbing books that had titles and authors in various print along the sides.

Curious, he pulled the book out of the shelf. The book was made out of smooth black leather. It was a big heavy book, and he opened it cautiously, unsure of what he would find in it. Inside was the perfect present. The book was a story book with brilliant illustrations. The colors were vibrant and the details were intricate. And it cost only twenty five dollars. He flipped through the book. All of the stories were about princesses and dragons and there was even a story about a little angel and her dog. The book was entrancing and magical. The perfect gift.

Fang took the book to the counter to pay for it. The clerk was a little old man who was bent over like a sagging tree. He smiled when he saw Fang carrying the book.

"Ah, finally someone is going to buy that book. I was wondering how long it would take someone to notice it," he said as he rang it up. His voice was old and sounded strained, as if every word were a great effort. "Been sitting here for near twenty years now, that book has." Fang handed him the money.

"Yeah. It's… For my sister." The man handed him the change.

"Enjoy," he said with a creepy smile. The man made him feel uneasy, so he left the store quickly. He looked at his watch. He had another hour to go until he had to meet the flock. He decided to go outside. He walked down the streets, looking at the sights. He found himself wandering into a more rural area. He was glad to get out of the crowds of the city. He walked past alleys and houses. He saw the pollution and the sickness of the people, and he understood why the School was trying to save the world from pollution. He checked his watch again. He had 15 minutes to meet the flock, and he turned to go. Suddenly, a hand shot out from between two houses. He tried to dodge it, but it grabbed his arm and pulled him into the dark alley. He kicked and punched, but the other person was stronger. A lot stronger. Within seconds, the person had his arms pinned and was pushing him against the wall.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Fang said. The person just pushed his face harder against the wall.

"I am Omega. And you will listen to me," droned a perfect voice. Omega? This was the guy Max had fought? Damn, he was strong!

"Hello, Fang," said another voice from behind him. A very familiar voice. A certain Jeb Batcher's voice. "How nice to see you again,"

----x----

_End of chapter. I toned down the Fang/Max this chapter, and I think I slowed it down a lot. By the way, in case no one noticed, I have never been to the mall of America so I have no way of knowing if it is how I really described it. Let me know what you all think, please._

_Sarah_


	4. Lies and Plots

_New Chapter. Please review._

----x----

Fang's blood seemed to run cold. What was Jeb doing here? And why was he with Omega?

"What the hell do you want?" Fang spat. He did not understand why Jeb was doing this.

"Oh, nothing," Jeb replied. "Just here for a chat," he said.

"Right, a chat," Fang said sarcastically, the way Max had taught him. "Then let me go!"

"Not yet. See, we have some things to discuss first." Jeb casually walked over so he could look at Fang's face. Fang glared at him in cold furry. "You see, we have this new… Product that we would like to test out. And we decided that you, who are always so under control, quiet, and calm, would be the perfect person to try it out on. Before we put it into the newer models, that is."

"I'm done playing your sick game, Jeb. I will never be your test dummy ever again." Fang snarled back. Jeb merely smiled at him, which irritated Fang to no end.

"No, I don't think you are. Not quite yet." He snapped his fingers and Omega released him. He fell to his knees. "Now, do we have an agreement? Will you do this last test?" Jeb asked, extending his hand to help Fang up.

"No, I don't think we do," Fang said back, slapping his hand away.

"Well, I'm sure we can find some way of persuading you. When ever you are ready, you know where to find me," Jeb said, throwing a card at Fang, who caught it instinctively.

_Jeb Batcher_

_The School_

Fang read it, shocked. He could not believe that Jeb actually expected him to fall for this, and go back to the SCHOOL. How big of an idiot did Jeb think he was? He looked up, ready to tell him this, but Omega and Jeb had vanished into thin air.

----x----

I had defiantly found the perfect gift for Angel. Sure, I had spent all of my $50 and didn't have any left for myself, but my baby was worth it. It had taken me an hour and a half to find the gift. It was in a store about four miles away from the Mall of America. It was a simple store, but something about it intrigued me. I went inside and immediately saw **the gift**. It was a necklace, but the fake diamonds almost looked real. It was silver and delicate, just the thing to make Angel feel like a seven year old queen. I knew it would look amazing when we were flying around and the sun hit the jewels. It positively gleamed in its case. And so I bought it. The store manager even wrapped it up in a pretty velvet box with a pink bow. I knew Angel would love it. I carefully put the box into my backpack and saw that I had about twenty minutes till it was time to meet the flock, so I went behind the store and took off.

Maybe it was coincidence that I saw them, but I did. I was not that far up, so when I saw someone standing in an alley, I knew it was Fang. Why on earth was Fang standing in an alley? I swooped lower to get a better view. Then I realized that Fang wasn't alone. My heart dropped like a stone in my chest. Fang was talking with Jeb. I listened as hard as I could, and I heard Jeb say, 'Do we have an agreement?'. And I thought I saw Fang shake his hand. I had seen all I needed to see. Flying back to the meeting place, I tried to sort out my thoughts. I couldn't believe it. So long ago, when I had thought that there might be a double agent in the flock, maybe I was right. I just could not believe it was Fang. I had told him everything. I had trusted him above all others. I had kissed him, even. And this whole time, he had been working with Jeb. It felt like it was personal. It felt like a slap in the face.

When I arrived back in the meeting place, I was still thinking about what I had seen. I couldn't comprehend that he was a traitor. I decided to not let him know I knew. Fang had just walked into the alley holding a bag that said "Brooder's Books". I wondered what was really in the bag.

"How was your day?" I asked. I noticed my voice sounded a little icy.

"Fine," he said calmly. He actually thought he could fool me.

"See anyone you know?" I asked before I knew it. Oops. He flinched and looked up at me.

"What do you mean?" He asked carefully. Like he didn't know. I decided to keep to playing dumb.

"You know, it's a huge mall. I was thinking that maybe you saw the red-haired wonder. Remember, the one you were glued to in Virginia?" He seemed to relax.

"Oh. No," He said. I crossed my arms and leaned against the brick wall behind me. Anger was coursing through me. Had he been working with Jeb this whole time? I heard noise from the street.

"I had SO much fun! I'm so glad we came here!" Total said as he turned into the alley. His smile was lit up across his face. Iggy and Angel and were with him too.

"How was it guys?" I said, trying to seem normal, even though my emotions were all mixed up.

"Max, look at the new bear Iggy bought me!" She said, holding it up for me to see. It was a chocolate brown bear that was extremely soft. It was wearing an obnoxiously hot pink tutu and a golden tiara. "Her name is Princess Celesta. She's Celeste's sister."**(A/N: Oooh, I'm creative)**. She explained to me. I nodded. "Even Iggy had fun," she said, squeezing his hand.

"She's cute, Angel," I said, handing the bear back to her. She beamed at me.

"I was the perfect guide dog," Total proclaimed. "I didn't say a word!"

"I bet that was difficult for you," Fang said to Iggy. They both snickered. I almost laughed too. Almost.

"I was the perfect imitation! I was deadly serious, too. I should go into acting!" Total continued, ignoring Iggy and Fang.

"You were great, Total," Angel said, scratching him behind his ears in the way that he liked. He licked her hand. Nudge and Gazzy walked into the alley, chattering excitedly.

"I saw a movie star!" Nudge said, running towards us.

"Which one?" Iggy asked. Nudge's forehead wrinkled.

"I don't remember. She was in a pirate movie, though." I rolled my eyes. This was typical Nudge.

"Are you sure you didn't just imagine it?" Iggy said.

"No, it was real!" She insisted, stomping her foot.

"I was there," Gazzy said, sounding awed.

"Ok, guys, enough. Time to head home," I said, spreading my wings. They all did the same. Then one by one, we all took off and prepared for the three hour flight home.

----x----

"We could make some bombs out of the gasoline in the water heating tank," Iggy was telling Gazzy, some time later. "And make a cord using the rug."

"No, Iggy, not happening." I said in my firm leader voice.

"It's not like we use that rug anyways," Gazzy complained.

"No," I said again. But I heard Iggy telling him that it would create a shock wave big enough to knock them off their feet. _Boys._ I thought. I still didn't understand them. Fang was flying far in front of the whole flock. Every time he needed to think, he did this. He was flying quickly while the rest of us were lazily gliding along on air currents. At this rate, Fang would probably get home half an hour before us, at least. Which was fine by me. He was probably planning to lock us in our rooms and set the house on fire anyways. Nudge was carrying Total, and the two of them and Angel were having a discussion on if the moon was made of cheese or not.

This was my flock. I had practically raised these kids myself. I had seen them grow and change, and I had helped them do it. And I wasn't about to stand by while Fang handed us over to the white coats. I needed to keep them safe, even if it meant I was facing off against Fang.

Before we knew it, night fell. It was dark and cold, and we flew by moonlight. . We were flying low to avoid the wet clouds and close to the side of the mountain where out home was. Everyone was getting tired, and Angel looked like she would fall asleep mid-air. It had been a long day. Six hours all together flying was pretty exhausting. Plus, it seems shopping is pretty energy draining too.

"Where's Fang?" Gazzy asked. I looked to where I had seen him last, and he was gone. I shrugged.

"He's probably at the house by now," I replied. "He was flying a lot faster than we were," Gazzy nodded. We flew in silence now. The only sound was the wind whistling through our feathers. It was kind of peaceful and refreshing. There weren't even birds in the sky. Just my flock and I. Minus Fang, of course. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something shoot up from the ground into the sky.

"What was that?" Nudge asked, sounding slightly panicked.

"You saw that too?" Total cried.

"I don't know," I replied.

"It looked like a shadow," Gazzy said.

"Angel, are you picking anything up?" Iggy said.

"No," She replied drowsily. Another shadow passed above us. I stopped flying and hovered.

"Okay," I said, starting to get a little worried. "That definitely is something. Stay on alert. We don't know what this is," I said. We all hovered in the sky, keeping our eyes open, looking everywhere. Nothing happened. We looked for whatever it was for almost a full minute, and no one saw anything.

"Maybe we did imagine it," Nudge said. Suddenly, something shot up right in front of me. Naturally, I raised my fists, ready to fight. When I saw what it was, I momentarily forgot to breathe. I choked and almost fell from the sky. It was Omega. A new and _improved_ Omega. And he could fly.

----x----

_More soon, leave comments, the usual please._

_Sarah_


	5. Dark

_NEW CHAPTER. This is, as you can see, a really long story. And the interesting stuff hasn't even happened yet! I hope this is exciting : )_

----x----

They had modified him so much. He now had a pair of small wings grafted to his back, and he flew like a pro. The wings seemed to make him move faster, if that were possible.

"Nice to see you again," I snarled. It didn't take me long to recover. "Last time I saw you, you were taking a dirt nap. Too bad you woke up," I threw the hardest punch I could at him. It hit him on the side of his cheek and he spiraled over once. Apparently, he wasn't as accustomed to fighting in the air as I was. "Guys! Get out of here!" I shrieked to the flock. I couldn't be worried about them while I was fighting Omega. They took off immediately, streaking up in the sky. In the split second that it took for me to make sure they were gone, Omega had recovered and punched me hard in the stomach. I heard ribs crack.

Apparently, Omega was also a lot stronger than he was last time we had fought. I sucked in a sharp breath. It hurt like hell. But pain was just a message, and I ignored it. I remembered what Jeb had said when I had fought Omega before: he can't track movement quickly. I waved my hand in front of his face again. I couldn't believe it. It didn't work! He kicked my broken ribs. Pain erupted and I couldn't think. I forgot to flap and I started to fall. He shot off away from me and headed for my flock.

"NO!" I roared, even though it hurt. He was too fast and had caught up to them already. I surged up as quickly as I could, but I was still far away from them. Iggy turned and threw a bomb at Omega. Omega reacted so quickly that I didn't even see it: he swatted the bomb midair and sent it shooting straight at me. I sucked in a breath and dodged to the left in the nick of time. It exploded right where I had just been. It didn't take Omega long to take out the majority of the flock. About 15 seconds, actually. He had reached Iggy at the same time I was dodging the bomb and punched him hard, knocking him unconscious. He flew straight back into Nudge, cracking her head. She also happened to be holding Total. They all started to fall quickly from the sky. In the next five seconds, Gazzy bravely launched himself at Omega and was thrown over Omega's shoulder and straight onto a mountain ledge. I think he left a Gazzy-sided imprint. At least he wasn't falling, though.

But Omega was not going to touch my baby. I got there just in time. The second he looked at Angel, I reached him and pulled down on his small wings hard. He gasped in pain, and whirled around to face me.

"Angel, GO!" I yelled. She took off towards the house. Omega punched at my ribs again, but I flew just out of his reach. I swung my foot and caught his side. He punched at my face so quickly that I couldn't dodge. I felt blood streaming from my brow. But I didn't care. I was locked in battle. Like before, we were pretty evenly matched. But he was a little better. Every move or block he made was a little bit faster. Every punch a little bit stronger.

I kicked and punched with all my might, but he just dodged with ease and parried. His blows were hitting their target. He wasn't even breathing hard, as opposed to me, who barley could breathe at all. Rage filled me. I could not believe I was loosing to a boy, much less this mindless robot!

"So, freak, who are you working for this time?" I said as strongly as I could. He didn't answer, he just kept attacking. I went on defense, concentrating hard on blocking everything he threw at me. "Did they program words out of your microscopic brain?" I hissed. "Answer me, Caption!" I said, mocking him, remembering how he hated when I called him names last time.

"My name is OMEGA!" He made a grab for my right wing and I pulled it out of the way just in time. Ok, now I was really starting to get pissed off.

"You crossed the line," I hissed, through clenched teeth. He ignored me. I kicked savagely at his stomach and he seized my foot. _Shit,_ I thought. He grabbed hold of my ankle with both hands and threw me into the side of the mountain. That hurt. I felt more blood as rocks and dirt rained down on me. I kicked off the side of the cliff and straight at Omega, trying to grab his neck. He grabbed my hands and caught me in midair. He twisted my wrists back until I screamed. The next thing I knew, he was continuously kicking me and punching me. I was beginning to loose consciousness. Then something I never thought would happen, happened: I knew that I was going to loose. I wasn't even fighting back anymore. Everything was beginning to seem fuzzy. I realized that my wings were not flapping anymore. Everything seemed to be going into a tunnel and I saw spots in my vision. My eyes could hardly stay open. I heard someone screaming as I fell from the sky. Then I heard Angel cry out. The last thing I thought was that Angel had come back. He was going to get her too…Then everything went black.

----x----

Fang flew ahead of the whole flock the whole way home. What did Jeb mean, 'they had ways to persuade him'? He was never going to be an experiment for them again. He could still remember clearly in his mind what it was like to sleep in a cage. The white coats pumping drugs into his arms. Running through mazes while they burned your feet. Not being fed for weeks so they could see how you reacted to starvation and malnutrition. He remembered being strapped down to a table in a white room while they shoved IVs into his arms. And he knew that there was nothing that could get him to do anything like that again. Fang had arrived back at the house. He glanced back: the rest of the flock was nowhere in sight. Fang realized that he had done it again: he had retreated into himself and flown faster than the rest of the flock and had left them. He shrugged. They would catch up soon.

Fang opened the door to the house hidden among the rocks and quickly turned the security system off. He went to his room and flopped down on his bed. He opened his laptop and checked his blog. There were still millions of people checking it everyday. He hadn't updated in awhile because, well, there hadn't been much to say. He couldn't exactly say that they had been sitting around like bums in Lazy Boy chairs watching MTV for the past two weeks. He clicked into his email. There were lots of comments. He read one from a user named fflockFan90851.

**fflockFan90851 says:**

**Fang! I think I saw you at the mall today!**

**My mom took me to the Mall of America**

**to celebrate our moving to a new house **

**and I think I saw you! I wanted so badly to **

**go up and say hi, but I was too scared. Can **

**I just say, you are so hot! If you ever need **

**a place to stay, just let me know. **

**Love, Rosie.**

_Uh oh,_ he thought. Max was right. _We do need to be more careful._ He was about to reply, when he heard the door to the house burst open.

"Fang!" He heard Angel scream. She sounded extremely frantic. "Fang, where are you!!?!" Something in her voice made him know that something was wrong. Seriously wrong. He ran into the hallway.

"What is it?" He said, hardly keeping panic out of his voice. Tears were streaming down her face. Her eyes were wide and fearful.

"It's Omega! The super experiment from the school!" _Shit,_ he thought. "We were just flying and, and, he showed up, and he's hurting the flock, Fang, he's really hurting them all-" Fang didn't wait for her to finish. He ran out the door.

"Stay here!" He yelled to her over his shoulder.

"That way! Hurry!" Angel said, pointing. Fang jumped from the ledge and snapped his wings out. He flew as fast as he could. Dread took hold of his heart as he remembered Jeb's warning. 'We have ways to persuade you'… Could this be what he meant? He heard Max scream. Her voice in pain only made him fly faster. He finally saw them, specks now on the horizon. Max and Omega were locked in a battle that Omega was clearly winning. Max was covered in blood, and Omega was barley scratched. He saw the others: Gazzy, face first on a ledge sticking out of the mountainside, and not moving. Iggy and Nudge, far below on the ground. Iggy was out cold, and Total was running in circles around them.

Max threw out a deadly kick at his side, but as quick as lightning, Omega grabbed her ankle and threw her into the mountain side. He saw rocks and dirt fly everywhere. He thought she was done… Then suddenly, Max threw herself out of the debris and at Omega. He reacted instantly, grabbing her wrists. He twisted them until she cried out in pain. _Max….._ Fang was closer now. _Hold on, Max…_ He thought. Then she became Omega's human punching bag. He was just whacking her back and forward.

"Fight, Max, fight back!" He cried fiercely to himself. Suddenly, Fang stopped flying. He realized that Max had given up. Fang was only about twenty feet away now, but he was so shocked he could not move. She….. Had lost... Her face was covered in blood and already forming bruises. Her lower lip was badly swollen, and he could see from here that her ribs were badly broken. Her arms were bleeding badly, too.

"MAX!" Fang screamed. Fang heard Angel skid to a stop beside him. She had followed him. She cried out when she saw Max. Then Max fell quickly, and hit the ledge below her with a loud thud. She had landed close to Gazzy. They both looked dead. Omega suddenly whirled around to face Angel and Fang. Fang threw himself at him. He threw all of his anger into those punches, but not one collided with Omega. He just dodged all of them, effortlessly. Before Fang could stop him, Omega flew forward and grabbed Angel by the neck. Angel choked. Her eyes grew big and she looked really scared.

"Don't move, or I'll kill her," Omega said in his drone like voice. Fang froze. Angel looked hard at Omega and started struggling.

"I can't get in his mind!" She cried, clawing his hands.

"Jeb tried to tell you. But you wouldn't listen." Omega squeezed Angel's neck tightly for a moment, and she went limp. "He hopes this will teach you," he said, throwing Angel's lifeless body toward Fang. He caught her, tears forming in his eyes. He had killed her. Omega had killed Angel.

He looked down at her. Her golden curls fell across her blank, lifeless face. "You have two weeks to return to the school. If you don't, another will die." Furry filled Fang. He glanced up, but Omega was already shooting off, faster than he had ever seen anyone fly. Angel was dead. The world seemed much darker. Fang didn't know what to do. He was still aloft in the air, but he knew the flock needed his help. But he had Angel in his arms. He could not believe that Jeb had told Omega to kill Angel. All so Fang would agree to be tested on again. He swore silently to himself that no matter what, he was going to kill Omega.

Fang quickly flew back to the house. He wrapped Angel's body in her favorite pink blanket. He felt complete sadness. This was entirely his fault. Angel was dead, and it was all his fault. He felt a tear slide down his cheek. Fang had not cried at all since he was nine, and he and Max and the others had first escaped from the school. He wanted to stay with Angel's body, but he had to keep another promise to himself. The promise to not let anything happen to Max…. Or the rest of the flock. He had not been doing a very good job at keeping that promise.

----x----

_I thought this chapter turned out nicely. Some of it seemed confusing when I read over it, but I hope you understood it. Sure it was sad (I hope) when Omega killed Angel, but I needed it to happen. Please don't hate me... You'll understand later._

_Sarah_


	6. Pain and Suffering

_So, I sat in my room typing this fic and I realized that I really like writing stories. I started thinking that maybe it would be fun to do this as a career. Then I thought that since I use fan fiction and adopt other people's characters and plots, that it would be really hard to create my own. Plus, I can't spell (thank you spell-check). My quest to find an occupation continues._

_Ps- I realized today that Max is 15 at the end of the 3__rd__ book. She had Thanksgiving at Anne's house, right? But her birthday is in November. Which means that Fang is also 15 at the end of the 3__rd__ book, because his b-day is only a few months after Max's. Interesting…_

----x----

Fang launched himself off the ledge in front of the house for the second time that night. He snapped his wings out and took off, flying back to the where the battle had taken place. He felt heavy rain drops. By now, it was almost completely dark. He felt like he was in a dream. There had always been the possibility that one of them might die, but he didn't expect it to actually happen. Especially to Angel. She was so young and incredibly sweet that he couldn't comprehend her being dead. He was filled with sadness and uncontainable anger towards her murderer. The real murder was Jeb, who had ordered her death. Omega was just the advocate. He swooped down towards Iggy and Nudge, who were the closest to him. Iggy was conscious now and sitting up, rubbing his side where Fang assumed he had been punched. Nudge seemed fine, other than a small gash on her head.

"I can not believe this! How on earth did Omega find us? I thought Max killed him already!" Total was pacing about, babbling as usual. "Oh, great, it's pouring rain now. More icing on the cake," The rain hit Fang and made him shiver. It seemed like the sky was already crying over the loss of Angel.

"Report," Fang heard himself say, the way Max always did.

"We're fine," Iggy said, wiping the rain off of his face.

"But Max and Gazzy got hurt really badly. You should make sure they are ok.." Nudge said. She sounded worried.

"Go back to the house. If Omega comes back, you don't want to be here," Fang said.

"Fang, where's Angel?" He heard Nudge ask as he shot up from the ground. Fang ignored her. He didn't have the strength to say anything yet. Besides, they would know soon enough. He landed next to Max, his back to the canyon. By now, Gazzy was stirring. He moaned then sat up.

"What happened?" He said, holding on to his head. He seemed ok, other than a few cuts and a large scrape on his arm. Gazzy saw Max next to him and his eyes widened. "I changed my mind. What happened to _her_?" He asked. Fang was almost afraid to touch her. The rain had washed a lot of the blood off of Max, so now you could clearly see the cuts. Besides numerous small scrapes, there was one really deep slash just above her right eye. There was another really bad one on her shoulder. The blow was bruised and still bleeding. The whole right side of her face was covered in bruises. Her lip was swollen badly too. Fang cautiously felt her ribs. Three of them were broken. He heard a gasp from behind him.

Fang looked over his shoulder and saw that Iggy and Nudge were behind him. They had disobeyed him and had followed, instead of going home.

"What? What is it, turn around and let me see!" Total complained from Nudge's backpack. His head popped up over her shoulder. "Oh my," he said softly.

"Let me guess, someone got the shit beaten out of them," Iggy said. "I can't SEE, remember?" He said. Gazzy filled Iggy in.

Fang didn't know what to do. He couldn't leave her out here, but he was hesitant to move her back to the house because he didn't want to hurt her more. For the second time in two days, he was seeing Max hurt. He hated it. Fang knew what it felt like to be beaten up badly. Ari had beaten him up _almost_ this badly before. That had been when Max had first kissed him. Even though he had been in a lot of pain, he still remembered it vividly. He felt Gazzy shiver. Gazzy was only wearing a T-shirt and jeans. He was drenched in rain.

"Is she, like, dead?" Nudge finally asked softly. Fang put two fingers on her wrist. He felt her distant pulse.

"No," Fang said. "I'm going to try and move her." Fang lifted Max up as gently as he could. The dirt was soaked with blood and rain water. Together, the flock took off and flew back to the house. Gazzy opened the door and they all went in. Fang placed Max gently on the couch and Iggy turned the lights on.

"Iggy, you take care of them," Fang instructed. He nodded. Fang was digging in the medical kit. He pulled out two bottles of antiseptic and handed one to Iggy. The other he used on Max's cuts. He examined the deep cut on her shoulder that would not stop bleeding. It was a big cut, about four inches long. He would probably have to put some stitches on it to make it stop bleeding.…

Fang pulled the scissors out of the kit and slowly cut her jacket away from her bleeding arm. It was Max's favorite jacket. He poured the antiseptic on it then slowly put the needle to Max's skin. This was hard for him. Sewing Max up, literally, was not a job that Fang trusted himself to do well. But at the same time, he didn't trust anyone else to do it, either. He cautiously stuck the needle into her skin, wincing as he did. He laced the needle into the other skin and pulled it together slowly. In ten minutes, he was done. He tied the final knot and then cut the excess medical string. Next, he wrapped Max's ribs up with bandages. He held some ice on her swollen lip. There was nothing else he could do for her. He looked at the others. Gazzy was sitting in the chair behind him, with Total on his lap. Nudge was sitting in the chair next to his, and Iggy was sitting on the arm rest. All of their eyes were on Fang.

"Where's Angel," Gazzy said, his voice low and even. Fang knew him well enough, though, to know he was scared. He was trying to act like a big kid, even though he was only seven. Fang took a deep breath. Normally, this is something that Max would have had to deal with. But seeing as Max was currently unable to, Fang was stuck dealing with it. He turned to face them.

"Angel…….died." He said. It was deadly silent. Total's mouth fell open. "Omega killed her." It was blunt, and not very sensitive, but it was the truth. Gazzy suddenly stood. His face was cold furry, but his eyes were full of pain and tears. He ran to the kitchen and kicked the trash can over as hard as he could.

"She's my _sister_!" He yelled. Then he ran to his room and slammed the door. Fang looked back to Nudge, Iggy, and Total. Nudge seemed to be hyperventilating. She shook and took deep, quick breaths. Her lip was quivering. Iggy had his head in his hands and looked dismayed. And Total….. Well, Total didn't believe him.

"You're lying. Angel couldn't be dead. She just couldn't possibly," he said in a flat voice. He seemed like he was trying to convince himself. By now, tears were rolling down Nudge's face. She stood abruptly and ran to her room too. Iggy lifted his face. He looked pained.

"How could this happen?" He asked.

"I don't know," Fang said in a quiet voice. He was glad that Iggy was blind, because once again, a tear was rolling down his face.

----x----

_Well. Quite an emotional chapter, if I do say so myself. I hope that I portrayed the characters the right way. I feel like Fang isn't quite like he acts in the books, but I'm trying._

_Sarah_


	7. Heal or Hide

MAX'S POV

_Sorry it took so long to update, I was on vacation with my family, first one in six years. Here's the next chapter. I don't know if I like where this is going, and I still need a beta. I had two people asking to be my betas, but I think they vanished off earth, so I need someone to read this stuff over! _

_Note to everyone: this takes place after MR3, before MR4. Please comment, it gets old writing and getting one or two comments. If I can take four hours to write a chapter, you can take two minutes to write a review, please. _

--x--

Fang didn't know how to deal with everything that was going on. All of the kids seemed to be in robot mode. Gazzy hardly left his room. He just lay on his bed crying. Nudge keep saying that everything was going to be alright, but she said it with tears rolling down her face and clearly didn't believe it. Fang didn't think she had stopped crying yet. Iggy seemed to be coping ok. He had cried for a few hours, but now he was mostly silent, helping out the little ones in every way he could. And Total…..Well, Total was worse off than any of the others. Without Angel, he seemed lost. She was his companion, his best friend. He barley spoke and just lay on the chair in the living room staring into space. Fang himself had been up all night, sitting on the arm rest of the sofa next to Max. He was extremely tired. It was now 8 o'clock of the next day. Over 24 hours of no sleep.

Max seemed to be healing. Her lip wasn't swollen anymore, and the bruises seemed to have faded a lot. The cuts had almost completely healed, except for the one he had stitched. Fang thought that that would probably leave an ugly scar. He looked down at her. Even in her beat up state, she was still beautiful. He pushed a strand of her soft hair away from her face. Suddenly, her eyes flickered open. She looked around the room.

"What happened?" She said in a raspy voice. She struggled to sit up, but Fang pushed her gently back down onto the couch.

"Rest, Max," he said.

"Ever'y thing hurts," she said.

"It was pretty bad. You've been out cold all night." He smoothed the hair off of her face again.

"Is every one ok?" She asked sleepily. Fang knew he couldn't tell her the truth. If he did, she would leap up and go after Jeb right now, even though she was still hurt.

"They….. Are coping." He said. Total growled slightly from the chair across from them. Fang thought he heard 'liar', but wasn't sure. He looked back down at Max. She was out again.

--x--

Later that day, Fang went to go check on Gazzy, who still hadn't emerged from his room. Gazzy was lying on his side in his bed, and he was still shaking. Fang cautiously sat down on his bed.

"We need to have a funeral," Gazzy said suddenly, in a surprisingly strong voice. His eyes were empty and he was pale and clammy.

"I know," Fang said softly, thinking of Angel's body, still in her room. Fang reached out and squeezed Gazzy's shoulder. He was being such a brave trooper. Fang knew how much this must hurt Gazzy. Angel was his little sister, after all.

"And with lots of flowers," Nudge said from the doorway, Total in her arms. "Angel'd like that." Fang nodded. Nudge sat next to Fang on the bed.

"She has to be buried with Celeste. And Celesta. It's only right," Total said. "Sometimes I thought that she loved Celeste more than she loved me," he said with a sniffle.

"She loved that bear a lot," Iggy said, coming into the room now. He sat down in the chair by the door. The flock sat in silence for awhile. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence, though. More like a reverent silence. Everyone was looking at Fang. Fang knew that since Max wasn't exactly in the best position to make decisions, this was all on him. He took a deep breath.

"Let's do it tonight," he said suddenly.

--x--

I hurt like hell. My whole body seemed like it was falling apart. The pain wrenched my eyes open. I saw spots in my eyes, but I didn't care. I sat up anyways. I felt my ribs gently with my fingers. They had been wrapped in bandages. Three of them seemed broken, but I knew that with our increased healing speed, that it would not take long until they were fully healed. Besides my ribs, my shoulder hurt the most. I saw that there was a huge bloody cut, about four inches long, and it had been sewn up with Medical thread. It was bruised and was an angry red. It was going to scar. _Where was everybody?_ I thought. I stood up, even though every muscle ached. It seemed like every part of me was telling me to lay back down and rest. But I had never really been one for listening to orders.

Slowly, slowly, I crawled off the couch. I put one foot in front of the other, and I was walking down the hallway. I heard my flock talking, whispering almost, in Gazzy's room. I rubbed my head. I had a killer headache.

"Let's do it tonight," I heard Fang say. I stepped into the room.

"Do what tonight?" I asked. My voice sounded rusty and I coughed a little. Every word was an effort. Everyone jumped. Apparently, no one, including Iggy, had sensed me. This must be a pretty intense conversation. No one answered. They all looked quickly at each other, and then looked to Fang. I felt the tight tension in the air. I noticed that Gazzy and Nudge's eyes were puffy. Then I noticed Angel was gone. "What's going on," I asked, not sure if I wanted to know the answer. "Where's Angel?" No one answered. Nudge and Gazzy started crying. Total whimpered. Iggy and Fang looked sad. Something bad had happened. "You'd better start talking," I demanded.

"Max," Fang said softly, from the bed.. They were all looking to him now. "Angel's dead… Omega killed her." _What?_ I felt myself sway on the spot, my head growing light and dizzy, and I started to fall over, almost fainting. Quick as a flash, Fang leapt off of the bed and had an arm around my waist, stopping me from hitting the ground. He held me up, but my ribs had twisted painfully as I fell. _Ouch, that hurt._ But it was nothing compared to how I was feeling. Angel couldn't be dead. She couldn't. Just a little while ago, we had been shopping for her birthday. My thoughts were racing. She was…. IS only a little girl… Not even seven yet…

"No," I heard myself say. I hated how weak it came out. My voice shook. My head, still feeling dizzy, made my body sway and almost fall over again, but Fang still held me up. I was barley standing now, and would have been on the ground if not for Fang.

"He's right, Max," Nudge said in a quavering voice. "She's gone." I looked to Gazzy. Always my little trooper. Always trying to be so strong. But now, he had big tears rolling down his face. I knew it must be true. My baby was dead.

--x--

Later that day, I managed to sort of fly with Fang and Iggy right next to me should I start falling from the sky. My whole body hurt. And I hated to admit it, but I had let Omega kick my ass. And because of it, Omega had killed Angel. It was entirely my fault. If only I hadn't allowed us to go to that stupid mall..

We landed next to a pretty river, only a few miles away from our house and where the attack had happened. Nudge, Total, and Gazzy had spread pink and purple and blue and yellow flowers around an Angel-sized mound of recently disturbed dirt. I choked up again when I saw it. This is where my baby would be forever… I had to admit, there could not be a more perfect place. The sun was starting to set now, shooting vibrant yellows and pinks into the clear sky. It was casting a beautiful light on everything. The flowers had droplets of water still on them from last night's downpour. The river in front of us was shimmering and clear. The sounds of softy running water were a comfort somehow. We were all standing in quiet. This was going to be hard.

I stood between Iggy and Fang. Nudge was holding Total, and Gazzy was leaning on her. We stood in quiet for I don't know how long. I'm not sure if it was because no one knew what to say or if we all didn't want to be the first to say goodbye.

"None of us were ready for this," I heard myself say. I looked to the others for support. As usual, Fang's face was emotionless. The others were all crying. Nudge came over and grabbed onto my hand. Gazzy buried his face in my side. "But we're going to make it through. We _will_ be ok."

There wasn't anything else that we said aloud. I knew that we were all thinking of Angel and remembering her in our own ways. Gazzy looked up at me.

"We're going to kill Omega," was all he said. Then he spread his wings and took off, flying straight towards the house. Nudge picked up Total and tapped Iggy on the hand and they took off too. I stood by the water's edge. I couldn't bear to look at Angel's grave anymore. I stared out into the water instead. I felt tears in my eyes. The sunset cast a….. Well, a heavenly yellow glow around. I felt horrible. My whole body hurt, including my heart. This was all my fault. And Gazzy was right. We were going to kill Omega. I had to get back at him for taking one of my flock. For taking my Angel. She wasn't even seven, for Christ's sake. What kind of a monster could kill a little girl?

_Omega has no emotion, Max. He's not a monster. It's just his programming,_ Jeb said. I so did not want to hear from him. Not now.

_Get lost,_ I thought.

_I'm sorry for your loss. I know that Angel was important to you. But you need to focus on saving the world. It's like I've told you from the beginning: the flock is a distraction,_ Jeb lectured me. Well, that certainly pissed me off.

_The flock is my real family, not YOU Jeb,_ I thought angrily back. _I can do this on my own, so get out of my head! I don't need your bogus advice anymore! _Luckily for me, he shut up.

"What was that?" Fang asked. I jumped. I had forgotten he was still here.

"What was what?" I snapped back.

"You were totally silent then you started waving your arms around." He said.

"Just Jeb," I said, wiping the tears out of my eyes and almost spitting out the last word. I had almost forgotten about Fang and Jeb and Omega's little deal in the alleyway. So maybe this wasn't completely my fault. Maybe it was Fang's fault. Fang didn't even flinch when I glared at him.

"What's with you?" He said softly.

"What's with _you_?" I snarled back. The dirty traitor. He thought that he could just act like he didn't do anything. He was_ so_ wrong. I spread my wings and flew back to the house as quickly as I could, ignoring the pain in my ribs and shoulder. At first, I almost fell out of the sky. But eventually I decided I could manage it, and five painful minutes later, I was landing shakily in front of the house, totally exhausted.

--x--

Later that night, Fang sat in his room. Did Max know something? He thought. Was that why she was acting so weird towards him? No, she couldn't possibly know. This was just her reaction to Angel's death. Fang lay down on his bed and closed his eyes. He was so tired. He hadn't slept in 48 hours. She had been dead for a whole day now.

Fang reached hesitantly into the pocket of his jeans. He pulled out the little card from the day before. He read what was written there. Was this what Jeb had meant? Was this how they were going to 'persuade him' to try this new surgery or experiment or pill or whatever? He thought of what Jeb had told him. _When ever you are ready, you know where to find me,_ he had said. A new thought appeared into his head. Omega was stronger than them. He knew that he and Max _together_ would probably still not be able to defeat Omega. Images flashed in Fang's mind. Omega had killed Angel, and if Fang hadn't shown up, Max wouldn't have lasted much longer either. Anger burned inside him. What if Omega came after the rest of the flock next? What if they came after Max? He knew that without her, they would fall apart. _He_ would fall apart.

Fang made a decision. It might not be the right one, but he couldn't stand the thought of one of the others being dead because of him. As soon as he could get away, he would return to the school and do Jeb's stupid testing on the ONE condition that he leaves the flock completely alone. Forever. That means no voices in Max's head, no white coats stalking them, no Erasers or Flyboys sent after them _ever_ again. Then he'd kill Omega for murdering Angel and threatening the flock. His mind made up, he slid under the sheets of his bed and fell into a long awaited sleep. He dreamt of Angel.

--x--

I lay in my bed that night, thinking. Was Fang really working for Jeb? If so, why? Was there really any information that he could be giving Jeb? Jeb already knew where we were. What else could Fang be telling him? What kind of toothpaste we were using? I trusted Fang. I told him everything, even stuff I wouldn't tell the rest of the flock. Maybe Fang's deal with Jeb was to take out the flock. But why? Wouldn't it be a lot faster and easier to just send Omega to do it? I rolled over on my side. I had too many questions and not enough answers. And it's not exactly like I can walk up to Fang and be like, '_hey, are you planning on taking out the rest of the flock, or did your deal with Jeb only include Angel?_' I'm pretty sure that that would not go over too well. And another question: what was going on between me and Fang? Did I like him, like Jeb was always telling me?

I decided not to think about any of it. For now. I was just going to distance myself from Fang so none of that… Almost-kissing-stuff would happen again, which just mucked up my brain with questions I didn't have answers to. And if there was a SINGLE sign that Fang was a traitor or that he was sabotaging us in any way, I would take the flock and leave. But right now, Fang seemed pretty harmless. There were five of us (if you count Total) against him. As long as Omega didn't show up, we'd be able to take him. Plus, I didn't like to think of Fang as a traitor. It made my stomach twist up. That was the last thought I had before I fell asleep.

--x--

_I know it gets old, but I'm asking you again to comment._

_Sari_


	8. Memories and Confusion

_Everyone:_

_I am sooo sorry that it took my so long to get this chapter up. Truthfully, I've had it written for weeks and weeks, but I hated it and refused to post it in its sorry condition. And then I have school and loads of homework, then I got a tooth pulled and a filling and a surgery and I was doped up so I couldn't write. And so then, when I was feeling better, I searched and searched for a beta, and finally, I found one. Thank you so, so, so much to my amazing beta for helping me fix this chapter. I'm happy with it now, so here it is. As a sort of 'sorry' for taking so long to post this, it's an ultra long chapter (10 full pages in word). As always, thanks to my reviewers. Keep reviewing! Let me know how to improve and what you think!_

--x--

I woke up the next morning, a rainy Sunday, feeling almost completely normal. Well, as normal as _I _get. My ribs felt much better, though they still ached when I touched them or turned in a weird way. The stitches on my shoulder hurt too and for some reason wouldn't heal. Other than that, I was back to normal. Physically, anyway. Emotionally, I was a complete wreck.

My mind wandered to Angel. She was gone. I was never religious, but I truly hoped there was a heaven. I hoped she was there, wearing a clean, pink tutu and flying around and bragging to the other angels that she had wings _before_ she came to heaven. At least she no longer had to feel pain. She was safe now.

I winced slightly, trying to ignore the tightening in my heart. I stood up and walked to my closet. I couldn't wallow. I grabbed Fang's favorite old black sweatshirt (which was mine now, seeing as it no longer fit him), and some torn jeans and pulled them on, not caring to look in the mirror. It didn't matter anymore.

I sat down on my bed Indian-style, pulling up my backpack to sit between my crossed legs. I pulled out the small black velvet box tied up with a pink bow and opened it slowly, trying to control my shaking hands. There was the necklace inside. The fake jewels still gleamed and sparkled the same way they had on Friday. It was tiny and delicate, just like Angel. As I stared at it, I let myself cry a little. Here, in private, I felt it was okay to cry.

After a few minutes, I composed myself, stuffing the box into my pocket, and headed downstairs and into the kitchen.

"Hey, Max," I heard coming from behind me. I spun round to see Gazzy in his Pjs, smiling half heartedly. The smile didn't reach his eyes.

"Sup, Gazzy." I said, ruffling his hair. He fell into the seat next to me, and stared sullenly at the table. "How did you sleep?"

"Alright, I guess. ...I dreamed of her again," He told me, whispering slightly. His bottom lip trembled.

"So did I." I needed to make Gazzy feel better. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the velvet box. "Here. You should have this." I said. I slid it across the table to him. He looked at me strangely, and stared at the box. "I bought it for Angel's birthday. She'd want you to have it. Open it." He lifted the lid, trembling like I had, and pulled out the necklace cautiously as though he thought it might break. He examined it closely, his mouth agape, his eyes far away.

"It's so… Angel." He said. He looked at it for a moment longer than placed it carefully back in its box. He stared at the closed lid for another minute, before putting it in his pocket. "Thanks." He added softly.

"How 'bout we go watch someone get Punk'd?" I said, smiling at him. He smiled back at me, but again it didn't reach his eyes. My heart hurt again. I felt like I hadn't seen his smile reach his eyes in months, though it hadn't even been a week since… Angel. He'd had no reason to smile.

"Okay," he answered. I knew he was healing, slowly but surely. Before long, Nudge joined us on the couch. She grabbed a cushion and held it tightly to her chest, for once not speaking. She'd slept in Angel's room last night, but I didn't mention it. We sat in silence, only the occasional robotic laughter breaking through. It didn't feel right. Nothing did anymore.

--x--

Angel's birthday came too fast. It crept up suddenly, and no one had time to prepare for it. We didn't mention it, although it was on everyone's mind. We tried to pretend we didn't know, and that it was a normal day. But it wasn't, and there were tell-tales signs everywhere that we all remembered.

We were all up and dressed before seven, a near miracle for the flock. Gazzy was wearing the necklace, and was refusing to leave Nudge's side. He had been clinging to her a lot lately. I saw Nudge crying once, but she stopped abruptly when she noticed me. I wanted to tell her it was okay to cry, but I didn't. I didn't want to bring it up. Besides, it'd be completely hypocritical of me. I was only crying at night, when no-one could hear me.

Fang tapped away at his laptop for hours, updating his blog. Nudge and Gazzy watched TV. Iggy stayed in the kitchen, cooking enough food to last us for weeks. _I _spent the day wandering around the house, silently watching the others. It broke my heart to see the flock like this. Even Total stayed silent, seated in a chair in the family room, staring at nothing.

We were halfway through our dinner of Mac and Cheese when I decided enough was enough. The last time I had flown was when we went to go buy Angel's presents, and the last time before that was two weeks ago. I had to get out of the house. My wings itched, craving the wind, a sensation they had been denied too long.

I jumped up from the table the second I was finished eating. I told Iggy he was in charge, and then opened the front door, running from the house and snapping open my wings. I would have left Fang in charge, but I couldn't know for sure that I could trust him.

I flew slowly, circling round the places we'd been recently. The town, where the fight had been, Angel's grave. Suddenly, I went into 'hyper drive', as Gazzy liked to call it, flying faster and faster. The wind stung my eyes, and my muscles strained against the speed, but I kept going, pushing against it, and though I wouldn't admit it, fighting the pain, the confusion, and the despair too. I wasn't sure how long I'd flown for, but I was a _long _way from home.

I slowed down a bit, lazily skimming the tops of some tall pine trees in a forest far from anything. I thought of everything I'd been through, trying to sort through the mess in my mind. I needed to solve some stuff.

Fang, Omega, and Jeb. How did they connect? Was he a traitor or not? I thought of my flock, and the pain they were going through. I thought of Mom and Ella, and hoped they were safe. And of course, I thought of Angel. She understood me almost as much as Fang (though that was probably due to the mind reading).

I spotted a pretty flower filled clearing and landed, then lay down in the middle. The grass tickled my back and its scent filled my nose, relaxing me. I closed my eyes and let the sun warm my face. Angel was such a sweet and cute kid. I couldn't believe she was gone. I realized then, when all my stresses were gone, that Angel wouldn't want us to morn over her. She was happiest when we were happy. I smiled at the memory of her.

_I'm glad to see you're happy again, Maximum,_ Jeb said, but I was so peaceful at that moment that I didn't even care that he was in my mind again. I just blocked out his voice and flew home to my flock, my family.

--x--

Fang was sitting in his room, staring at the ceiling. He was thinking about Jeb's offer. What kind of test was this exactly? What would he have to do? He ran his fingers through his long inky-black hair and sighed. For so long now all that he had wanted was for the flock to be free. He and the others had spent years at the school being tested on. Was he really about to willingly go back? His door opened suddenly.

"Fang?" Nudge said hesitantly. She had never been in his room before. Actually, the only person he allowed in his room was Max. "Can I come in?" She asked, despite the fact she was already in the room.

"Yeah." He said. Nudge sat in his desk's chair and he frowned slightly. No-one ever came in his room, and he wasn't sure he liked Nudge being so comfortable in it.

"What's going on between you and Max?" Thoughts flashed through his mind. The kiss, in the cave, what seemed like years ago. The almost kiss, in Angel's room. Him grabbing her hand in the mall. Taking care of her when Omega hurt her.

"What do you mean?" He asked cautiously.

"You guys used to be so close. You'd talk all the time. You were always together. But since Angel died… Well, you don't anymore. I just want to know what happened, that's all. I'm not the only one, either. Iggy felt it too." She said.

And for once, she stopped talking. She folded her hands and placed them in her lap then looked at Fang. He couldn't deny it- Max had been rather cold to him since that day. They used to rely on each other, and she used to come into his room and talk to him after the others were asleep. But she had just stopped. Like she'd changed her mind or something. The idea worried him.

"I have no idea." He said, and it was the truth.

"Oh." She said. They sat in an uncomfortable silence for nearly a whole minute. "I think she's hurting a lot, you know." Nudge finally said.

"She's cut up about Angel, that's all."

"No, I think it's more than that." Nudge argued. "Something else happened, too. She feels… I don't know. Betrayed." Fang was a little surprised to be getting all this insight from Nudge. She opened her mouth to speak again, but something cut her off. _**BOOM.**_ The noise echoed through the whole house. Everything shook. He and Nudge jumped up.

"That can not be good," Fang said. Together they ran into the hallway. They checked every room in the house, but no one was there.

"Where is everybody?" Nudge cried. There was another _BOOM_, but this one was quieter and more distant. They threw open the door to the house and leaped off the ledge, spreading their wings as they went. They saw Iggy and Gazzy below, and they flew to them.

"What happened?" Fang demanded, but they were laughing too hard to answer. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something flying to them at top speed.

"You better stop laughing, 'cause here comes Max," Nudge said sternly. Max flew right up to them, at top speed, and stopped just feet away.

"What the _hell _happened?" She yelled. Iggy and Gazzy looked at each other and broke into giggles again.

"I think it's fair to say they set off a bomb," Total said from Gazzy's arms as he surveyed the blackened ground below them. There was smoke now, and even a hole in the ground where the bomb had gone off. Total had a big smile on his face too.

"Is this what you call being in charge?" Max yelled at Iggy. "You set off a freaking bomb?"

"Wait, you left Iggy in charge?" Fang asked, slightly hurt. Max always left him in charge. He glanced at Nudge, who mouthed, '_see_?'

"Did you feel that vibration? It was amazing," Iggy said to Gazzy.

"It was almost as awesome as that bomb we set off by the old house, remember? Big Boy?" he replied. They started laughing again.

--x--

I was taking my time flying home, happy for this new lightness in me. I was nearing home when I heard a big _**BOOM**_, closely followed by a slightly smaller _BOOM_. Was that a bomb? Oh my God, Iggy and Gazzy were DEAD! I thought, and flew as fast as I could using my ability towards the noise and smoke. They were all gathered a ways away from the smoking black whole in the ground.

"What the _hell_ happened?" I yelled, using my scariest leader voice. Iggy and Gazzy just laughed.

"I think it's fair to say they set off a bomb," Total said from Gazzy's arms as he surveyed their damage. He was smiling.

"Is this what you call being in charge? You set off a freaking bomb?" I yelled at Iggy again.

"Wait, you left Iggy in charge?" Fang asked. I ignored him.

"Did you feel that vibration? It was amazing," Iggy said to Gazzy.

"It was almost as awesome as that bomb we set off by the old house, remember? Big Boy?" he replied. They started laughing again. Normally, I would get in Iggy's face and seriously discipline his leadership choices, then I'd reprimand the two culprits by making them do everyone's chores for a week. But I noticed Gazzy, with a real smile on his face. He was happy. I realized that Iggy and Gazzy were letting go too, as I had just done. I sighed.

"That was a pretty awesome bomb." I said. Iggy and Gazzy looked at me in shock.

"You mean we're not going to get in trouble?" Iggy asked, amazed.

"I'm feeling nice. Don't do it again." I said. Then I held out my fist. I hadn't done this in a long time, but I think it was time that I started again. Everyone stacked their fists on top of mine, and then we tapped each other's hands. "Let's get out of here before someone decides to investigate, okay?" I said. My flock flew home, the happiest that we all have been in a long time. All but Fang. But I wasn't about to let him ruin our good moods.

--x--

That night, after everyone was asleep, I crept into Iggy's room. It was late, probably after 12. I knew he was asleep, but I didn't care. I needed his insight. Maybe it was because he was blind, but he was much more in tune to everyone's feelings. Not bothering to knock, I opened the door and stepped into his room, flicking on the light. He sat up immediately in bed.

"Isn't it late?" He asked.

"Hey, Ig. Sorry to wake you." I said, closing the door behind me. I leaned against it.

"'S okay," he said groggily. "What do you need?"

"Let's say, hypothetically, that you overheard something you weren't supposed to hear, and it makes you think that one of your friends is…. Doing something bad, but you aren't sure that what you heard was true, would you trust them?"

"That depends. Did you trust this person before you heard whatever you heard?" He asked, and I nodded, but then realized that he couldn't see me.

"Yes. More than anyone else." I replied instead.

"Is there any indication that this person is doing what you heard they were doing?" I thought about it for a second.

"No."

"Then trust them."

"But what if what I heard that they were doing something really bad? Something that could endanger the flock?"

"If there isn't any proof that they are doing it, then you should believe in them. For now, at least. Can you tell me exactly what is going on?"

"No," I said again. He shook his head.

"Ok. Well, I say you trust them, and that's that. Now, if you don't mind, I need my beauty sleep." I laughed at him.

"Sure," I said. "Thanks, Iggy,"

"Whatever," he said, rolling onto his side. I slipped quietly out of his room and again closed the door. Iggy was right. Fang hadn't hurt the flock or anything like that, so I decided to trust him and give him the benefit of the doubt.

I walked towards Fang's room. Maybe I had misheard Jeb. Why on earth would Fang make a deal with Jeb? Last time Fang and I talked about him, he said he was going to kill him.

**FLASHBACK**

_It was hot in mom's kitchen, but I didn't care. I had other things on my mind. Since mine and Fang's…. uh… 'Intimate Moment' on the beach, we hadn't spoken at all. We were kind of awkward around each other._

_I felt bad because it was my fault that we had split up, but I also felt like it had been the right thing to do. That day on the beach, I was feeling like I had never felt before. Sure, I loved the flock, but this was different than how I loved everyone else. I had felt drawn to him._

_I kicked my feet up on the table and leaned back in my chair, glad for some time alone. Ella was at school, mom was at work, and everyone else had gone to the grocery store. I absent-mindedly flipped through a sports magazine, but I couldn't focus...I had too many feelings. Too many things to think about._

_I threw the magazine aside and ran my fingers through my hair. Like, for instance, all of this business with Fang and not knowing how I feel. Plus, the flock and I were invading mom and Ella's lives. We had been there for nearly a week now, and we were starting to wear out our welcome. Mom had said we could stay as long as we wanted, but I knew we couldn't. There were too many of us in such a small house._

_We were going to have to leave and go... I have no idea where. Plus, there was the whole Itex-is-trying-to-take-over-the world deal. I'm starting to think that this job should be for someone older and more experienced than me. I'll just kick back in Tahiti or somewhere else nice and let someone else worry about this._

"_You look tired," someone said from behind me. I jumped right out of my chair and spun around. _

"_Fang," I hissed. "You really need to stop sneaking up on me." He rolled his eyes and sat down in the chair next to mine. My stomach felt like there were a million butterflies inside it. I sat down again. "Where is everyone?"_

"_At the playground." He said, referring to a park a mile or so away from the house. _This is it_**.**_ _We could finally talk alone. There was an uncomfortable silence where we just sat there and looked around. _

"_Uh, it's nice out, isn't it?" I said, trying to cut through the stifling tension. Fang nodded. He was staring at the floor, which all of a sudden was really appealing to both of us. Neither of us really knew where to start._

"_Damn," he said softly._

"_What?" I asked. _

"_I'm sorry." He replied. He didn't need to say what he was sorry for. I knew he meant for leaving. In truth, it wasn't entirely his fault. I was the one who had asked Ari to come with us, even though he had tried to kill us more times than I could count. Then again, Ari saved my life in Germany. Without him, I might be taking a dirt nap._

"_Oh." I said. I didn't know what else I could say. We had both messed up. _

"_Was it bad?" He asked suddenly. "Being locked in the dungeon?"_

"_Yes," I said, in a kind of 'duh' tone. "It was really cold and dark. We didn't know what was going to happen to us, and we were told that you were dead. Plus, you know, we couldn't escape even though the impending destruction of the world was happening a few floors above our heads." I paused, remembering what it was like in the dungeon, feeling so helpless and alone. He sniggered slightly._

"_I can see how that would make you mad."_

"_And then there was Jeb showing up and saying he was my dad, which only made me even angrier. All this time, he's been _my dad_**,**_ _and he's the one who put us through all of this. Who knows? If it weren't for me, you guys would probably be living normal lives. You'd probably all be with your parents kicking back like every other kid, as opposed to saving the world from evil scientists who are lead my father and a crazy woman in Germany. You wouldn't have to worry about where to sleep every night or if some crazy School experiment will be there to haul you away when you wake up." I took a deep breath. "In other words, the dungeon was miserable."_

"_We weren't doing much better," he said. "Iggy, Gazzy and I just thought about you guys the whole time. We all knew that it was a mistake to split up, but we never mentioned it. We knew we would probably never find you again. Thank you, modern technology." I chuckled at this, and relaxed slightly in my chair. "Plus, we wouldn't have met each other if we were normal."_

"_I don't even care that Jeb is my dad. He's still working with the enemy. The enemy that I've sworn to take down, which includes _him_." I was really starting to get irritated now, just remembering what he had done. Fang just watched me out of the corner of his eye. "Plus he locked me in the isolation tank, nearly killed us, and told us that our lives were just one big dream, so I'm not sure he'll win 'Parent of the Year' award. Some things are a bit hard to overlook."_

"_I'm going to kill Jeb for doing all that to us." He swore, and shuddered almost imperceptibly. "Trying to make us think our whole lives were a dream is too far." We sat in silence again, each to our own thoughts. I reached for my glass of lemonade and took a sip, then set it back down. I looked up at him. He was looking out the kitchen window, watching a cloud roll lazily by. I studied him for a moment. For once, he was relaxed, as I had seen him only when he spoke to me.._

_His black hair was long and fell over his eyes. The highlights from the New York makeover were gone now, instead replaced by natural highlights, courtesy of the sun. Feeling my gaze, he looked away from the window and his intense eyes locked with mine. They were a dark smoldering brown, but when you got close enough, you could see the flecks of gold. Only two people had ever actually gotten close enough – me and the Red Haired Wonder. I gritted my teeth._

_We had never spoken about our two kisses- the one on the beach, when I thought he was about to die in my arms, and the one in the cave, when he had been trying to get me to forget about Jeb and the institute and all of the other things that had plagued my mind since we had left our first home. I caught sight of his eyes again, remembering all of the other times that I had looked into them with overwhelming feelings of hopelessness and despair washing over me. And yet, every time, he had been able to make me feel better._Fang_, I thought, though I didn't dare say it aloud, _what do those kisses mean? As _though I had spoken, his eyes softened, as though he, too, was remembering our times together, our kisses, or perhaps our reunion on the beach, where he had held me most tenderly, both of us near tears over being together again._

_Either way, I realized that he was much closer to me now than he had been moments ago. My already fast beating heart sped up, and his eyes, sill locked with mine, had something in them that I couldn't place. Just then, from the walkway out front, I heard the sounds of the rest of my flock, talking excitedly and laughing._

_I pulled back, as though nothing had happened at all, and stood up, going to greet them, leaving a puzzled looking Fang to wonder what we were now, somewhere between brother and sister and something else. Something that I knew, living with four other kids, a talking dog, my mom and my step sister, we could never be._

**END FLASH BACK**

Since that day, neither Fang nor I had mentioned our... um… _tender_ moments together, though occasionally I would catch him looking at me in the same way he had in the kitchen that day. I had decided, after my talk with Iggy, that I wanted to trust Fang. I _had _to trust Fang. I pushed every thought of Fang-the-Betrayer out of my head, and got up.

I walked slowly down the hall, away from Iggy's room and towards Fang's, and paused for a moment outside his door. I listened for a moment, but it was completely silent, save for the sound of wind. I knew that Fang liked to leave his window open at night so he didn't feel trapped in his room.

I thought for a second of going into his room and apologizing for being so cold this last week, but I decided against it. Instead, I went into my own room, climbing into my bed and instantly falling into sleep, where for once I had only happy dreams.

--x--

_What did you think? This chapter had me stuck for weeks. Please, as always, review. Chapter 9 is done also and coming soon! Keep watching!_

_Sari_


	9. Back to the School

MAX'S POV

_Ok people, what happened to all the good reviews? I was getting a ton of reviews, and now, all the sudden, chapter eight got like three. This is really saddening, people. It makes me feel like no one reads this or that no one likes it (tear). Comment, and thanks to those who do! Oh, and by the way, I'm putting my other project on hold for this. Consider yourselves lucky, readers! _

--x--

Fang waited until it was silent throughout the house. Glancing briefly at the digital clock in his room, only the soft orange light visible in the dark room, and read the time displayed there. 10:43 P.M. It had been a week since Angel was buried, and it was time that Fang returned to the School, no matter how much he was dreading it.

Silently, he opened the window in his room, wincing at the squeak it made. He stood still for over a minute, almost shaking as a sudden gust of cold air burst in through the window. When no one forced open the door and demanded to know where he was going, he began to search his closet for warmer clothing. He nervously pulled on the fraying sleeve of his windbreaker. He saw his bed out of the corner of his eye, so warm and inviting compared to Mother Nature's dark and lonely night.

Sliding his backpack onto his back, he launched himself out of the window, fully enveloped in the darkness. With his dark clothing and even darker hair, he almost disappeared in the deceitful midnight light. Feeling that awesome rush he got in that moment when he was free-falling, he unfurled his wings, allowing them to catch the wind and lift him gently higher into the air.

The thoughts of returning to the school petrified him like nothing else did. Fang had no idea how long he would be held there, if this was a trap, if they'd even let him live at all. Enjoying the feel of his feathers against the smooth wind, he continued to glide on an air current. For a moment, he glanced back at the mountain where their home lay, but it was totally invisible, undistinguishable among the rough texture of the mountain side.

Working his powerful wings, he surged upward, the wind stinging his face slightly. He shivered, feeling the cold wash over him. Taking a deep breath, he started flying towards California, and ultimately, the School. His only light was the dim glow of the moon, which shown out like a beacon in the otherwise black night. Fang's breath came out in little clouds, the only company for runaways. He prepared himself for the four hour flight. It would be hard after not flying for so long, and his wings already ached in complaint, but he told himself he had no choice.

The tests that lay ahead of him would be grueling, painful torture, but the only way he could ensure the flock's safety. He just _had_ to keep safe. Just thinking about the possibility that another of them could die made the cold fingers of dread grip his heart. Besides, he had a plan. So he concentrated on the only thing he could; moving his wings up and down, up and down, flying closer to the place from his nightmares and further away from the ones he loved.

--x--

His wings ached in agony. His body was exhausted. His eyelids were drooping with sleep. Yet when Fang was circling above the school at about 3 in the morning, looking down upon the darkened grounds and the empty yards, he felt suddenly rejuvenated, as if he just drank a Grande Mocha with extra caffeine. He felt adrenaline and a rush of anger towards these satanic people. He continued to circle, mentally preparing himself for whatever "test" Jeb had for him.

Undetected so far, Fang decided to make his presence known. _Stupid, but necessary_, he told himself. Folding his wings in, he began to drop like a stone towards the land at 200 miles per hour. He threw out his wings before he crashed into the cement ground and hovered, surveying the Schoolyard. He looked around, and then seeing that he was searching for, he flew quickly to a security camera, then punched it as hard as he could, sending it flying, and leaving only sparks from the wires.

"That was for Angel," he muttered under his breath. He knew that somewhere in the school, someone would have been watching a screen, and they would now know he was there. Sure enough, he heard an alarm going off, and lights in the windows of the School feebly flickered to life, as well as the lights outside. Blinking as his eyes adjusted, he pulled down a little bit to hover a few feet about the ground as Jeb and a few flyboys joined him outside. Jeb smiled creepily at him, and Fang glared back.

"Welcome home. I knew you would come," he said, taking a step forward. Fang flew a foot higher into the air. More flyboys and white coats were pouring into the yard now, watching him with interest. The flyboys pointed their guns at him.

"You sent Omega to kill Angel. Is that how you were going to 'persuade' me?" Fang asked icily. Jeb merely laughed cruelly, unaffected by Fang's death stare.

"It was necessary for the bigger picture. _Always_ try to see the bigger picture, Fang." He said, stepping closer to Fang again. Fang felt himself growing angry. This was not going how he anticipated it. "Come on, now, it's time for your testing."

"I have one condition for doing this test for you, Jeb," he snarled, spitting out the last word. Again, Jeb just laughed at him.

"You're already here Fang. There isn't much room for bargaining now," he said mockingly, gesturing to the flyboys, the white coats and the tranquillizer gun that was in his hand. Jeb was right, Fang knew, and it was stupid and impulsive to have come unprepared. It was a trap. He would be tested on and go though hell, and it wouldn't even protect the flock at all. Jeb surprised him however, by saying, "I'm listening."

"You leave the flock alone. Forever. That means no flyboys attacking us, no white coats trying to capture us, no tests, no voice in Max's head. Nothing, ever again." Fang hovered, breathing heavily and awaiting a response. The white coats in the yard appeared to be looking to Jeb for an answer too.

"Deal," Jeb said, taking Fang by surprise. In that moment of dumbfounded-ness, he let his guard down, only for a second, but that second was long enough. Everything suddenly went dark.

--x--

Some time later, Fang felt his eyes drift open. He tried to sit up, but found he couldn't. Like every other time Fang has woken up to find he can't move, he started to panic. He struggled, and then remembered where he was. The School. His eyes felt heavy, an effect of the tranquillizer, and it was almost as though a strange fog had settled in his mind. It was impossible to think straight.

Faintly, he heard the beeping of a heart monitor, and despite his unusually fast heart beat, every beep felt like it was hours apart. His head rolled to the side, taking in the room around him, and he had to fight to keep bile from rising in his throat. He felt woozy; if he stood he knew he would probably faint. But of course, he couldn't stand anyway. He was strapped to a cold metal table by strange, cheap-looking Velcro straps that were uncharacteristically strong. Fang started to feel sick again, knowing full well he'd signed him_self _up for this.

He caught sight of a clock hanging on the wall, and it read 4:18. But was it 4:18 AM or PM? The same day that he had arrived or the next? Perhaps he had been here for days, or even weeks, under the spell of these strange drugs. He continued struggling against the straps when he saw the tubes and wires attached to him. Into both of his arms, strange clear liquid was being pumped by IVs. A tube was down his throat, helping him breathe, though now he gagged on it. There were pads attached to his chest, monitoring his heart. The room, or mad scientist laboratory, depending on which side of the glass you were, was small and white, and there was tons of equipment around him.

He heard faint steps coming towards the room from the hallway, and then a code being typed into a keypad. Fang wished that he had the hearing that Iggy did, so he could learn it by sound alone. There was a loud buzzer and the click of the door unlocking. Then the door slid open, revealing Jeb and Omega.

They walked into the room casually, like they did this every day. '_Oh yeah,'_ Fang thought. '_They do.'_ Jeb asked him how he was feeling, looking at the heart monitor and writing thing on the clip board, but was met only with Fang's icy stare and silence. Omega took a step forward, as if he was going to pummel the answer out of him, but Jeb held up a hand and he stopped.

"How long have I been here?" Fang asked quietly.

"Only a few hours," Jeb responded, and Fang inwardly let out a sigh of relief. The flock was still asleep. They wouldn't even know he was gone yet. Maybe they wouldn't ever have to know. Fang felt Omega staring at him, but he refused to look at him. "We are currently injecting you with a drug called Reoloplex." **(A/N: Yeah, I totally made that up.) **

"Which means?" Fang prompted.

"It will merely change your hormonal balance. I'll explain more later," he said, still writing on his clipboard. Then Jeb injected another IV into his arm, and he fell into a deep sleep.

--x--

Fang woke up in a field, just outside of the School's fence. For awhile, he thought he was dreaming, because all he could see was the grass blowing around him, the rising sun, and a few stray dandelions. He closed his eyes, but then someone was standing above him. He hoped it was Max. He opened his eyes again, and saw Jeb standing above him. '_Oh great, it's a_ nightmare _then,'_ Fang thought bitterly

"How are you?" Jeb asked him again, looking down on him, still clutching that stupid clipboard.

"Fine," Fang said. "What is this going to do to me, exactly?"

"It intensifies your feelings of rage and anger. It makes you more irritable." Then he realized why they had chosen him instead of one of the others. He was the quiet one. "It will start working in a few hours.

"What about our deal?" he asked. If Jeb didn't keep their deal even after he had done the testing, Fang would have to hurt someone.

"I intend to keep it. As long as you follow my…. Guidelines."

"Which are?"

"Number one. You return in exactly one week so we can conclude the results, to determine if we should use larger amounts of this drug on future models. Number two. You cannot ever tell any of the others about this. They can't know, because it may interfere with the effects."

"That's all?" Fang asked suspiciously.

"Yep," Jeb replied.

"And you will never bother the flock in any way ever again." He asked for clarification.

"That's right," Jeb said. "If you break the guidelines, though, the deal is off."

"Deal," Fang said. Then a thought crossed him. "What time is it?" Jeb checked the watch on his wrist.

"7:05 AM, exactly," he said.

"Oh shit," Fang said. He had to fly as quickly as he could back to the house. Even at a dead sprint, he'd probably get there at 11:30. He spread his dark wings, which were still sore from last night's flight, and launched himself into the air, glad for the little freedom, but with the weight of his guilt settling in his stomach.

"Remember, one week." Jeb called. But Fang ignored him, flying home.

--x--

_Comment, please. I feel like your mom nagging you to do your chores. But if you'd all just do it, I wouldn't have to! (Sorry, that sounded… Rude.) You know I love you._

_  
Sari_


	10. Sticky Effects

_Sorry I haven't posted in forever: I've been sick with a nasty infection and have been in and out of the hospital for testing. Then we were painting my room, so my computer was taken apart. And plus, you know, just school and soccer and stuff._

--x--

"Yo! Wake up! You're burning daylight!" I yelled. It was 11 o'clock and Gazzy and I were the only people up. So naturally, I decided it was time to get out of bed and finally get the flock to do something productive. It had been a week and one day exactly since we buried Angel. I had been doing a lot of thinking lately about the Fang/Jeb thing. I realized that Jeb didn't have a deal to make with him anyways. Jeb already knew where we were, so I kind of let it slip. Speaking of Jeb: he hadn't talked to me since that day in the clearing. Jeb's voice, I mean. You know the one inside my head?

"Ugh, why did you wake us up so early?" Iggy complained, staggering into the kitchen.

"Because," I said, "we are actually going to get out of the house today. We're off to the beach." He sat down at the table and started eating the eggs and bacon that Gazzy and I had made. They weren't that bad, I had to admit.

I ran down the hall way, opening everyone's doors and yelling at them to wake up. Nudge's door was locked.

"NUDGE! Am I going to have to break this door down myself? Because you KNOW I will!" I threatened. She opened the door and a very unhappy and grumbling Nudge walked towards the kitchen. I knocked on the door to Fang's room, and then opened it.

"Fang? Rise and shine, lazy." He didn't answer. So I turned on the lights. Fang wasn't in his room. The first thing that I thought was, '_Shit, Fang got kidnapped_,' but then again, I had amazing hearing and Fang wouldn't have gone quietly. So Fang must have _left_. Fang left? No, no, he probably was coming back. He probably just went to the store or something. Fang couldn't be gone. Where would he have gone? Why would he have gone?

I was truly about to start freaking out. He promised he'd never leave me again… What if he didn't come back this time? What if he went off to meet Jeb and Omega? I felt tears come to my eyes. Why would Fang do this to the flock? Suddenly I felt wind coming through his open window. I turned around. Fang was crawling through it. I was relieved.

"Fang!" I said, running over to him and hugging him. He jumped, clearly startled to see me in his room. "Where have you been?"

"What are you doing in here?" Fang snapped, ignoring my question. I pulled away from him slightly.

"I woke everyone up early. We're going to go to the beach today," I said. He pushed me away. "I thought you left again…" I said, still standing by the open window.

"Yeah, well, I didn't, did I? I'm standing right here." I was in shock. Fang had never acted this way to me before.

"Where did you go?" I asked.

"I went to stretch my wings. But thanks for the trust, Max." He turned his back to me. I knew he was lying by the way his back tightened. He never used to lie to me. I walked over to him and put my hand on his shoulder.

"Fang-" He jumped at my touch and threw my hand off. He whirled around. "What is your PROBLEM today? What happened to you?" I yelled at him.

"Nothing happened to me, Max!" He said, getting up in my face. "I don't have a problem." I reached out and shoved him away from me. He shoved me back, a lot harder than I shoved him.

"Fang…." I said, and my voice shook.

"Shut up!" He reached out and slapped me. I couldn't believe it. The slap stung so much and was so hard that I fell to the ground. I couldn't move. I was in shock. Fang had just…. Slapped me?

--x--

"Fang-" Max said. He threw her hand off his shoulder. He could feel the drug in his veins. It was intensifying his anger, increasing his urge to fight. He couldn't control himself He thought for a second that the drug was too strong. This was Max that he was talking to. But then the thought disappeared, replaced by rage. She had no right to be in his room. She had no right to touch him!

"What is your PROBLEM today? What happened to you?" She yelled at him. He took a few steps towards her, hoping his size, almost a head taller than her, was intimidating, but she didn't back down.

"Nothing happened to me, Max! I don't have a problem!" Fang was now fully in her face. She looked up at him in disbelief, and shoved him away from her. Fang barley took half a step, and then shoved her back as hard as he could. She almost fell over, but caught herself.

"Fang-" she said, her voice shaking. But he didn't want to hear a lecture. He didn't WANT to hear her tell him about what an ass he was being. He felt the anger and the added adrenaline coursing through his body. He knew he shouldn't be all worked up over this, but the drug made him not care. The words poured out of his mouth before he could stop them.

"Shut up!" He yelled. Then Fang reached his hand out and slapped her as hard as he could. Max fell face first to the ground. Fang instantly regretted it. The sound of the slap rang out and he realized what he was doing. He looked down at Max. She didn't move for almost a minute. Then she slowly raised a hand to her lip. She wiped away the blood that was running from her mouth. Then she turned her head looked up and looked at him. She cried no tears. The look on her face was enough. It was the look of affection and pain that so rarely crossed her face, and it was more than what any words could say. Fang knelt down beside her. He wanted to tell her about why he had done this, that it was because he couldn't control it, and the agreement that he had made with Jeb. But as part of the deal, he could not tell them.

He heard a sound to his left and he looked over. The whole flock, including Total, was looking at him in shock from the doorway. This was Max that he had just slapped. He loved her. And he had just hurt her, he knew, in more ways than one. He couldn't believe that he had just broken his promise 'never to let anything happen to her' _himself._ He was the one that hurt her. He had made her bleed.

"Max…" He said. Her face was turned away from him. He wished he could take it back. He wished that he could make her understand. He knelt down beside her and touched her shoulder. This time she pulled away.

"Don't," she said. Her voice shook.

"Max," He tried again. "You know I would never-"

"Don't," she said again. He pulled back. She was shaking slightly, and fighting for control of her emotions.

"Fang, how could you?" Nudge said. Iggy shoved him out of the way and he and Gazzy knelt by her. Fang could feel Nudge glaring daggers at him and he even heard Total growl a little. Max didn't speak. She unsteadily stood and left his room.

"Dude, what the hell," Iggy said as he left after her.

"Not cool," said Gazzy. Fang followed them as he left his room. He had to talk to Max, he had to make her understand…

"I don't think so," Nudge said when he got to his door. She shoved him back into his room. Fang could feel the anger growing again but he kept it down this time. She slammed the door in his face. Fang didn't know what to do. This was Max… He had just hurt Max..…What was he going to do?

--x--

I sat in my room, arms wrapped around me knees, and stared at myself in the mirror. My eyes were slightly red from crying, but they weren't nearly as read as the hand shaped mark on my face. I may have been sitting on my bed for minutes or hours, I wasn't sure. The kids had knocked on the door a few times and called out to me, but I ignored them. They came in and tried to make me feel better, but eventually left me alone when I wouldn't speak. Iggy and Gazzy came in and told jokes. Total sat on my lap and even licked me a few times. Unresponsive, they left.

Nudge came in then, and she sat with me, playing with my hair and telling me what an ass he was, and that he didn't mean it, and he was just mixed up, and he had a moment of laps into crazy land. She sat with me longer than the others, and she talked to me about everything she was feeling and thought about, always with a comforting hand. After hours of her talking to fill the silence, she stood and told me she'd be back later, and instinctively I reached out and grabbed her arm. She looked a little surprised, like she had forgotten I was capable of movement.

"Get the others," I said. She looked confused, but nodded and started to leave. "All of them but Fang," I called out as she closed the door behind her. I had to tell the others what I had seen, what I knew, or guessed, about Fang. They had to be aware that Fang may have betrayed us so they wouldn't be blindsided. They gathered in my room. And I told Total to stand outside Fang's door so he couldn't surprise us.

"Why must I guard the door? Is it because I'm a dog? _Guard_ dog, I get it. Well ha ha Max, you are _hilarious_," Total scoffed sarcastically. Nudge gave him a bone chilling glare that I didn't even know she was capable of, and he attempted to glare back, but he trotted off like I told him to. I took a deep breath and then began.

"When we went shopping," I said, gathering my thoughts and purposefully avoiding Angel's name, "I think I saw Fang make a deal with Omega and Jeb."

"What?!" Gazzy cried.

"No way," Iggy whispered, more to himself than others. Nudge, for once, was silent, her mouth open in a perfect O.

"What did they make a deal about?" Iggy asked quietly.

"I don't know," I said truthfully. "I couldn't hear." We sat in silence for awhile, the others digesting what I told them. Finally, Nudge spoke.

"But Max," she said, her eyes beginning to water. "What are we going to do? I mean what if he's going to try to make us go back to the School? What if he has been working for Jeb the whole time?" She grew silent, thinking, then the dam broke and tears flew down her face. She looked up at me and I knew she just thought of what I had been fearing. "What if he helped kill Angel?" She whispered so softly.

"That's what I've been worried about." I said.

"We can't let him do this," Iggy said in a fiery voice. "We've got to act."

"We should leave. Get out while we can." Gazzy said in a strong voice. I was slightly surprised by the maturity of his voice and how right he was. His plan had the element of surprise because Fang had no idea we knew, plus we were just disappearing. If this worked out the way I hoped, then we'd have been flying for at least three hours before he even knew we were gone. We could travel all night and be three states away when he woke up. He would have no idea which direction we went.

When we left, we'd always wonder if he really did make a deal with Jeb or not. We would always feel the sting of his absence. But at least we would still be together, and we'd still be safe. I shoved the thoughts of us together out of my mind, because I knew that would never be an option anymore.

"Don't talk to Fang. Don't say goodbye. Quietly pack your thinks. We leave at 11:30 tonight."

--x--

I went to my room and gathered my clothes, but I was careful to leave behind all of Fang's hand me downs. No need to rub salt on my already aching heart. I had trusted Fang from the very beginning, and had told him things I wouldn't tell anyone else. And now, well, everything he said to me seemed like a lie. I considered him as my brother. Hell, at times I was sure I loved him as more than a brother. But now, he was the enemy And the kiss he gave me in the cave? It was probably just part of his plan to gain more control over my flock. I could picture him and Omega sitting around, and talking about how much of an idiot I was. That's what I told myself, so that I would ignore the pain.

After my backpack was filled with my clothes, I went to the bathroom and grabbed my toothbrush and other essentials. Total was still guarding Fang's room. I wondered for a moment if Fang was even in there. I checked on the others and made sure they had packed everything they needed, and then Iggy and I went to the kitchen and packed all of the non-perishable and not too heavy food and put it into our backpacks. Then I stashed all of our bags under my bed so Fang wouldn't see them.

All my flock were now sitting on the couch and watching TV, enjoying our last hours of not being on the run. They looked upset, but I knew they had accepted it. I was in robot mode, checking on everyone, making sure we were ready. At eight, I made everyone go to bed and made a big show of pretending to go to bed and making a lot of noise so Fang wouldn't have a clue that we were leaving. I secretly told them, as I tucked them in, that I'd wake them in a few hours.

I myself didn't sleep. I didn't even try. I knew that I wouldn't be able to. Instead, I walked around my room as quietly as I could, and said goodbye to all of the things I couldn't bring with me. I picked up a picture that Ella had taken back at Mom's house. It was of my flock and I, celebrating Total's birthday. We had a giant cake, and we were all gathered around it, smiling and laughing. Even Fang had managed to crack a smile, and at the exact right moment, Ella had snapped the picture. She had told me she wanted to be a photographer. It was my favorite picture.

My other favorite picture was right next to it. It was a picture of me and Fang, his arm around me. I was in mid-laugh, and Fang was looking at me and laughing too. We were at the beach and we had just pulled a prank on Gazzy. Ella had taken that picture, too. Whenever I saw that picture, it made me smile. Now, it just made me sick.

I made my bed as neatly as I could, making sure all of the pillows were nice and plumped up. I hung up all the clothes in the closet and put everything neatly into drawers. Then I took the picture of Fang and I out of its frame, tore it in half, and placed the halves in the middle of my bed where I knew that Fang would find them. Then I carried all of our stuff from my room to the front door, as silently as I could. Then I closed the door to my old room, now merely a room inside a hidden house.

I went to the kid's rooms, opening them and gently waking them up and telling them it was time to leave. They got up solemnly and dressed. Each seemed reluctant to leave their beds, because they knew our chances of coming back were slim. Outside Fang's door, I had Iggy listen for Fang's breathing.

"Slow and even. He's asleep," Iggy whispered to me. Then I opened the front door and watched my flock take off one by one, leaving our home. Nudge was crying, and Gazzy was close too. "Were to, Max?" Iggy asked.

"East," I said, saying the first direction that came to mind. "We'll fly for four hours then steal a car." My flock nodded and started flying, whipping their eyes on their windbreakers. I flew in front, and I never cried, and never looked back.

--x--

_This has to be one of my facorite chapters. Please comment, because it took me a long time to write this one!_

_Sari_


	11. Watches and Alone

_Here, finally, in chapter 11 in Empty Spaces. I know, I know, I didn't think it ever would come. In truth, I've had it done for a couple of weeks, but I never post without having my stories read through by a beta first so that you, the readers, can have the best quality story possible. Unfortunately, my beta was really sick for awhile, so I used a temporary beta on this chapter. Then my real beta came back, so I got two different views and feedback on this chapter. _

_I still don't think it has my usual magic, as I call it, but it's been so long that I thought you'd kill me if I didn't post soon. So here is the long overdue update. Chapter 12 has already been sent to the beta, so it should be up soon too, as an apology for not updating in so long. I'm also half way done with a new chapter in my other story, MR4 rewrites. I'm finally doing the dock scene. Anyway, enough with me. Here it is! Hope you like. Read and review, as always. _

--x--

We flew quickly all night long, close together. We never spoke and we didn't stop. All of us had different things on our mind, anyway. Perhaps I had been too quick to reprimand Fang. He'd not even got a chance to explain.

Maybe I should have asked him about it, or trusted that he wouldn't do something like that, or whatever. Then again, if I had said something, maybe he would have hurt us or reported us or… something. At any rate, it was too late for that now. I forced myself to not say his name aloud anymore. I wouldn't even think it. It stung.

We had been flying for four hours straight, longer than any of us expected to. Not even Gazzy complained. Only when I saw Nudge yawning and Total sleeping in Iggy's arms did I glance down at my watch. The digital face read 3:17 AM. We had to be a good distance away from the house - and _h__im_ - now, so I decided it would probably be safe to bunker down for the night. Besides, it was freezing cold, and I was predicting snow.

It didn't take us long to locate a mountain cave, and the others were asleep almost as soon as their heads hit the ground. Iggy groggily said he'd take the first watch, but he looked so tired that I knew he'd be lousy at it, so I told him I would. I wasn't tired anyway, not really. Gratefully, he stumbled away and lay down between Gazzy and Total.

I ventured out to the mouth of the cave to gather fire wood, and then built a small fire for warmth. If it did begin to snow, we'd sure need it. I tried to think of other things I could do to keep myself moving and busy, but I couldn't think of anything, so I sat down against the cave opening.

Shivering from the wind chill, I wrapped my arms around my knees and leaned against the wall of the cave, ignoring the sharp shock of the cold rock meeting the skin of my upper arm. I scanned the sky, looking for any movement, like for example, flyboys, Omega, or Fa- never mind. Flyboys, Omega, and whatever else was out there.

I felt bad, momentarily, as I glanced over at the kids, knowing that I had forced them to leave their home so soon after arriving. They were now shivering in a mountain cave instead of sleeping in their warm beds. I had forced them to resume their life as reckless runaways.

I glanced again outside, and saw the first snowflakes swirling down towards the ground. I decided to retreat further into the cave, seeking what warmth the small fire could provide. The snow was falling in sheets now, coating the ground with its icy whiteness.

My thoughts began to stray, once again, into unwanted territory. I was with…. someone and it had been snowing. I had shoved a snowball in his face, and it turned into an all out war. Back then, I didn't know what he was doing. I had thought that… that person would do anything to protect one of the flock, that he'd even die to. I guess I was wrong.

--x--

The silence around me then was stifling. I peeked, fleetingly, at my watch. It was now 5:43. Surprising how time flies when you're concentrating on, well, not thinking of certain things. I myself was now beginning to feel tired, so I decided to wake one of the others. I couldn't fall asleep in the middle of my watch, could I?

I walked to Iggy's sleeping form, and leaned over him, prepared to shake his shoulder until he woke up. However, he seemed to be having a pleasant dream, for he was smiling in his sleep. I would feel guilty if I pulled him away from it. Instead, I reached out and shook another shoulder. She woke instantly.

"What is it, Max?" Nudge asked wearily. "Is it time to leave already?"

"Shh, no honey. It's your turn for watch," I said, watching her face closely.

"Really?" she exclaimed, sitting up and beaming like the sun. I knew this was a big moment for Nudge. At 11, nearly 12 now, she was finally considered one of the 'big kids'. She was old enough to stand watches now, I figured. I nodded at her, putting a finger to my lips to remind her to be quiet.

"Hey look, snowflakes," Nudge said, walking to the entrance of the cave. She settled herself down where I had been, and scanned the sky, already searching for threats.

"If you hear or see anything odd, wake me and Iggy straight away," I said sternly. She smiled at me again.

"I won't mess up, I swear Max, I'll do nothing that could distract me, and I won't even blink! Nothing will get by me, I guarantee you, nothing will get within ten miles of this place without me knowing, and-" I clamped my hand over her lips to stop the motor mouth.

"Wake Iggy at 7, okay?" I said, taking of my watch and handing it to her. I had decided to give her a short watch, because it was only her first. "Tell him to wake me two hours after you relieve him. We're leaving at 10, on the dot." I told her in a hushed voice. She nodded and immediately went back to work.

I didn't think sleep would come easily this night, knowing that I would be away from _Him_ forever. The cold hard floor was also not benefiting to my thoughts of sleep. Apparently, though, I was much more tired than I thought, because the next thing I knew, it was morning, I was shivering, and a foot of snow coated the ground.

--x--

Fang woke, exhausted and feeling irritable. _'Reoloplex must be affecting me still,'_ he thought. He rolled over in his soft bed to check the time: it read 10:51 A.M. He had slept really late. Maybe that was a side effect of the drug. He felt sore from the long flight from the school the night before last, and he was dreading his return again in 5 days. And he still felt immensely guilty for hitting Max. He'd apologize and she'd forgive him, eventually. That's what he hoped for, anyway.

He climbed out of his bed and made it with brisk efficiency. Max was always nagging at the flock to make their beds, so he figured he had to start saving up brownie points. After his bed was made, he trudged lethargically to his closet and pulled out the first clean clothes he could find, which happened to be dark jeans and his favorite black hoodie, and then he prepared to face a day of begging for Max's forgiveness.

The others were strangely quiet today, but Fang paid no attention to that particular thought. He was still waking up. At that moment, Fang just hoped the bathroom was open. He cleaned up and washed his face, then squirted some toothpaste onto his brush. That was the second sign that something was wrong, though his head still did not process the fact that his toothbrush was the sole one in the cup where they stored them.

When he was done getting ready for the day, he decided he couldn't ignore his growling stomach anymore, so Fang dragged himself down the hallway to the kitchen. Fang would have to face the others eventually. He was surprised again to find the kitchen empty. There was always at least one the kids in there, scavenging the fridge or cabinets for food. He tugged the fridge open and pulled out the orange juice, and then drank it straight from the carton. Fang was glad for the silence, because his head was throbbing….

Wait. The silence. Fang finally realized something was wrong. The silence in the house was absolute. Instantly, his training sent him into automatic high alert. The kids were always loud. The TV was always on, someone was always arguing with someone else. Screwing the cap back onto the juice carton, he placed it on the counter and cautiously walked to the living room. It was empty, just like the kitchen.

The silence was stifling now to Fang as he recalled the other signs he had missed. The missing toothbrushes. The bathroom being open for once. The kitchen and the family room deserted, the TV off. Panicked now, he ran to Gazzy's room and threw the door open. It was empty. Nudge's room, Iggy's room, even Angel's room, all empty

He saved Max's room for last, as a last strand of hope that they might be gathered there. The door to Max's room creaked open, and a horrified Fang found it empty. His family was gone. All their stuff was gone, too, so he knew they weren't just out for a flight.

Stunned and in shock by this blunt betrayal, he collapsed onto Max's bed, his head in his hands. Faintly, through blurred vision, he saw something on her otherwise plain bedspread. He reached over and picked up the small rectangular picture and held it in shaking hands. Fang remembered this picture. His arm was around Max, and they were both laughing and running along the beach. Ella had taken it. It was, all in all, and amazing picture of the pair of them. The only problem was that Max had torn it cleanly in half, her face on one side of the rip and his on the other.

"No," Fang told himself firmly, disbelieving the solid facts before his eyes. He couldn't hold it in, and tears streamed from his eyes. Fang was alone. What was he going to do?

--x--

_I still am not happy with this chapter! Why is it that it is so easy to make good chapters one week and the next week you can't seem to put magic into a single sentence? Oh well, I assume it will have to suffice for the time being. Also, sorry it's so short. Eek. Ok, please review and let me know what you think.  
__Sari_


	12. Running Away

Duh duh duh duh…

_Duh duh duh duh…. It's here! Finally, it's here, though it has no magic at all in it is, as my beta pointed out, quite short. I promise, though, starting next chapter the excitement turns up. Swear. Keep reviewing, and check out my other project, too._

--x--

I made sure the flock had packed up the camp site adequately, watching over them and the sky with hawk eyes. I decided that there was no more time to be miserable. I had to snap out of this, I had to act normal again; I had to control my flock. Most importantly, I had to push him out of my mind.

"Let's blow this joint, guys!" I called, when I noticed that they were all ready to go. I held out my arms and Total leapt into them. I stood by while one by one my flock jumped from the cliff ledge and into the noontime sun. Nudge shot me a smile as she walked past, and I smiled back. I jumped from the ledge and into the brisk air, spreading my wings and soaring upward to meet the others.

"Where to, Max?" Iggy asked. He was my second in command now, and he knew it.

"Let's head South West. Escape from all this snow," I said. The cold was too much. I was thinking something more like Florida or California, or even Hawaii would be nice.

"Oh, thank God," Total moaned as I shoved him into my already heavy backpack. "I hate this snow. I feel like a furry popsicle." I rolled my eyes, though it was wasted. Gazzy, too, seemed excited that we were headed for warmer weather, because he kept dropping hints that he wanted to go to the beach. Nudge was happy for the sun, I knew, because she kept up a streaming dialogue for the first hour of our flight about the benefits of the sun in regards to skincare. As if I cared. I just tuned out, nodding occasionally and oohing and ahhing in any available gap.

"Check it out, guys," Gazzy said, pointing at the ground where the dense evergreen forest below us finally started to fade out. "We're almost to Nevada!" He exclaimed. Apparently, that was the direction we were headed.

"Wait, guys, look," Nudge called, pointing off into the horizon. My eyes snapped up and quickly scanned the sky.

"Oh no," Total groaned. Oh no was right.

"Flyboys, 12 o'clock," I said, taking charge immediately. "Nudge, you and Iggy take the right. Gazzy, you've got outer left, I've got middle left. Keep watch for each other, and be listening in case I call for a U and A,"

"In this case, just an A, I suppose." Total said smugly. I rolled my eyes and ignored him.

"There looks to be about 50 of them. Easy for us. Let's rock," I said, rocketing off in the direction of the approaching flyboys. Deep down, I was almost glad they had come for us. I needed a good aerial fight to take out my anger. My feelings were building up, and I knew, that was never good. Nothing made feelings disappear like pummeling flyboys a couple of thousand feet in the air.

Behind me, I felt my flock fall into place, and we speed off to meet the enemy.I was just yards away from the first of them now, and I felt a familiar smile come to my face. This would be fun. I brought my fist slamming into the side of the first robot in front of me, and heard the sounds of the others hitting metal as well. One threw a punch at my head, but I tucked in my wings and dropped a few feet, leaving him to swing at the air. Then I surged up, punching him hard, and he collapsed into a heap of parts.

I continued to fly up, hitting any flyboy that came within ten feet of me, and looking for my flock. Gazzy had set off a bomb, destroying about ten of them, and he seemed to be fine fighting the other three against him. Iggy and Nudge seemed to be doing fine too, each taking on a handful of flyboys, though Iggy was reaching into his pocket, looking for a bomb, I'm sure. Following me were about seven flyboys, all stupidly close together.

I tucked in my wings and fell down, feet first, slamming into a flyboy and sending him tumbling into two more. Then I swung my fist around and kicked another in the side, the momentum from my fall adding extra impact. I looked around again, noticing nearly all the flyboys were done now.

Gazzy, though, was fighting off a half dozen robots at the same time, and sporting a black eye and a cut on his hand. I turned to go help him.

"Max, look out!" Total shrieked from my backpack. I whipped around quickly, just as a flyboy sent an iron fist into my still injured ribs. I felt them give slightly, and then an immense pain erupted. Though I felt like I could faint from the agony, I still managed to dismember him with one sharp punch. I'm just so committed like that. His metal head flew away from the rest of the body, and then both parts fell into a rapid decline.

"Report, everyone!" I shouted, still watching the last flyboys fall towards the land far below and clutching my ribs.

"I'm fine," Nudge said. Her arm had a little bloody cut, but it seemed minor.

"Same here," said Iggy. Gazzy also nodded to show he was okay.

"Well, _I'm_ not okay!" Total complained from my backpack. "That was horrible! I'm never being with Max during a fight again!" He cried, shuddering.

"Why not? I kept you safe, didn't I?" I said, uneasily. Some talking dogs just don't know when to be grateful.

"You took nearly half of them out by yourself. They were all gunning for you. I'd much rather be with Iggy," Total said, climbing out of my bag and perching dangerously on my shoulder. Iggy rolled his sightless eyes and grabbed the whimpering idiot, pulling him safely into his own grasp. I just sighed. I don't know how Iggy can do that when he's blind.

"Let's get out of here before someone sees us," I said. "We'll steal a car, too. Maybe then we'll be less conspicuous."

"Good!" Nudge said happily.

"My wings are killing me," Gazzy agreed. It had been a long time since we had taken flight.

It took us quite a long time to find a car suited to our…… special needs. Eventually, we ended up with an old, broken down jeep with orange upholstery all along the inside. We had to attach a secondhand engine and a steering wheel, but eventually we got it working, and we rolled out of the used car parking lot without drawing too much attention to ourselves, though we were stealing a car. We didn't think it would be missed too much. Besides, it smelled like fish.

"Gazzy."

"Yeah Max?"

"SHUT UP!" I yelled, for what had to be the fiftieth time. He was sat in the front seat by me, having screamed shotgun before we'd actually _found _the car, with his whole body turned round to face Iggy in the back. They were having what they had described as an "exchange of bodily gasses." Let me tell you, a mutant burping contest is extremely distracting to the average learner driver (I.E. me). He nodded noncommittally, and turned to focus his attention on Iggy once again.

--x--

"Welcome to the Taco Bar," a perky girl practically sang, reminding me way too much of The Red Haired Wonder back in Virgina. I hated her already. I didn't bother to answer, I merely glared at her, and she looked back at me, surprised that I seemed so angry at her. "May I take your order?" She finally blubbered out. I admit, my death glare can be slightly intimidating to the average person.

"Yeah, I'll have thirteen soft tacos with everything, twenty one crunchy tacos with everything, five crunchy tacos with everything except sour cream and pinto beans, two sprites, a lemonade, three chocolate shakes, two vanilla shakes, five orders of nachos, an order of guacamole, and one taco salad with extra hot sauce."

I watched her press the buttons on the machine, looking panicked. Apparently we ordered too much, as we commonly did. She looked at me, astounded, and asked if we were sure the four of us could eat all this. I said yes, yes we could, that's why we ordered it, thank you. She still seemed dazed as she told me the total. She swiped my (Jeb's) credit card and handed it back to me, along with a piece of paper that stated our order as number 215.

I watched as the kids joked around in a booth, shooting straw wrappers at each other. I smiled at them, relishing in thoughts of their happiness. Soon we'd be well fed, back in our car and heading...wherever we were heading.

"Number 215?" An ugly kid called, covered in zits and with a mass of red curly hair shoved under his hat that read, 'Ask Me About the Burrito Snack Attack'.

"Gaz, get over here and help me with these!" I called, waving to the five trays of food in front of me. Willingly and licking his lips, he bounded over and scooped up two of the trays and then went back to the table, slamming them down. They hadn't even made full contact with the fake wood tabletop before items began to 'mysteriously' vanish.

"Yes, yes, yes!" Nudge said through a full mouth, reveling in the deliciousness of her taco.

"Guys, be civilized!" I yelled. They all looked at me for a second, then burst out laughing at my expense. I laughed, too, because who was I kidding? Salt and wrappers and pieces of lettuce and cheese already covered out surrounding area, and we'd been eating for barely 3 minutes. I felt bad for whoever had to clean up our mess

--x--

_What did I tell you? Short, magic-less. Crap. But that's what I think all my stories are, but this one is worse than usual. Review, anyway._

_Sari_


	13. Confusion and Flight

Once Fang had calmed down and stopped sulking, he decided to think of a plan

_Here are 8 whopping pages of a chapter. It was beta'd twice because I wasn't happy with it. I also have the next chapter done, but I'm still doing final edits of it, so it might be a bit for that one, but check back soon. As always, review, etc. etc. _

--x--

Once Fang had calmed down and stopped sulking, he decided to think of a plan. He knew he had to go after them. The problem was, he had no clue where they would have gone. They had about a 12 hour head start on him, and he had no idea which direction they may have gone in. He was sure that was Max's plan.

Angrily, Fang went to his room and started packing his things. He didn't know how, he didn't know when, but he knew that somehow, he would find them again, no matter what it took. He was alone, and the silence that he used to revel in was suddenly too loud. He wanted to scream or sing or make _any _noise so he wouldn't feel so alone. Fang turned on the TV instead.

He kept it low so it was background noise. He noticed that there was hardly any non-perishable food that he would be able to take with him. The rest of the flock must have taken it all. Fang didn't mind, though, he wasn't worried about food.

Suddenly, something on the TV caught his eye. It was on channel 5, which usually had the local news, but they had said something that had gotten his attention. It was a beacon, a blessing, a miracle. He listened.

"…….The mysterious bird kids may have been sighted near the Nevada border, just hours ago." Fang dropped his toothbrush in shock, and it rolled away under the couch. He didn't care, though. He was too absorbed in the TV. He dropped to his hands and knees and moved closer to the television, turning the volume up simultaneously.

"Thanks, Trisha." The news reporter said. She was in a clearing, and she was surrounded by metal parts that Fang knew to be the remains of flyboys. "This video clipping shows them fighting with what appear to be robots." The image behind the reporter changed from the battle field to a bad quality video of Gazzy, Iggy, Nudge and Max fighting with the flyboys. It looked like it had been recorded using a cell phone. Fang's heart ached for the missing flock.

He had a general location of where the flock might be now: around the Nevada border area. Fang estimated that that was South-West from where he was. He had hope, and it sparked then grew into a blazing fire. He could find them now. Vaguely, he heard something about watching the 11 o'clock news for more information, but he was already on his way out the door.

--x--

Twenty glorious minutes later, when our stomachs were full and our wings were better rested, we leaned back, examining the disaster we had left behind. I had a headache now, and I'm sure whoever had to clean up after us would have a headache too.

"Ugh, I am so FULL." Iggy said, patting his tummy.

"Me too," Total said, sticking his head out of Iggy's bag. The fast food place had a strictly no-dog policy, and I'm sure a talking dog would defiantly drive them crazy. Iggy shoved his head back into the bag before anyone could see. The others began to talk in hushed voices about the fight with the flyboys and the possibilities for how they were tracking us, and I glanced up at the TV.

It was showing the news, muted, but with subtitles. I watched as the pretty lady news reporter stared into the camera and relayed the story of a strange sight caught on an eleven year old girl's camera phone...Uh oh. This wasn't good… I stood hastily and turned the volume up.

"In top news today, the mysterious bird kids may have been sighted near the Nevada border, just hours ago. This strange sight was recorded by an eleven year old girl on her cell phone while she was camping with her parents. We go live to Rachel for the full story. Rachel?" The anchor said. Instantly, the image on the screen changed to a very familiar place. A place that we had been, just less than four hours ago.

"Thanks, Trisha. As Trisha said, the bird kids may have been spotted earlier today. This video clipping shows them fighting with what appear to be robots." The image changed again to a bad quality video of Nudge, Iggy, Gazzy and I fighting with the flyboys. I groaned inwardly. This was bad, bad, bad!

The image changed again to the reporter, standing among metal flyboy parts, some still smoking slightly. "I'm here with Lindsey Bradshaw, who witnessed this attack. Lindsey, can you tell us what happened?" Rachel said, as a little girl who did indeed look to be about eleven walked in front of the camera.

"Well, I'm on a camping trip with my parents, and I hear loud noises, so I look up, and BAM! Something metal's flying down at me! I jumped out of the way just in time, and then grabbed my phone and recorded what I saw. There were only four of them, though. I wonder what happened to that other boy and girl…?" Lindsey trailed off. My heart ached for Angel and...Him, even though I didn't want it to.

"Can you tell us who attacked whom?" Rachel reporter asked. Lindsey, distracted from her train of thought, returned her attention to the camera.

"It looked like the robots attacked them. Then after they bird kids destroyed them, they just flew off, like they do this every day," she said, looking a little dazed.

"Thank you, Lindsey," Rachel said. "No one seems to know exactly what happened, but as soon as we find out more about what happened here, we will let you know. Back to you, Trisha," she said, smiling brightly as the image on the screen cut back to the newsroom. Trisha smiled at the camera again.

"Be sure to watch the 11 o'clock news for more information as we get it. And now…." She continued, but I'd heard all I needed. I looked at Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, and Total, who all apparently had been watching the TV too, judging by their surprised expressions. But we weren't the only ones. The girl who had taken our order was now whispering to the red haired boy behind her hand, pointing at us, and he was reaching for the phone. Damn.

"Get up, now, we're leaving," I demanded. They didn't need to be told twice. They jumped to their feet and were out the door before the two employees could figure out what was happening. We broke into a run as soon as we were out the door, heading down streets and ducking into alleys, making sure we weren't being followed. A group of tourists were walking by. "Merge," I commanded.

"Ouch!" Nudge cried as her foot was stepped on by a clumsy bystander. I grabbed her hand and pulled her up before she could fall, never stopping moving. Iggy had his fingers brushing lightly on my back so he could follow me, even though he was blind, and Gazzy was staying at Iggy's side.

"Inside!" I said, pointing to a store selling souvenirs to tourists. We inside then straight out the back door to a narrow and dark alley between two buildings. "Up and away," I said, practically throwing Nudge into the air. Then Gazzy and Iggy, with Total in his bag, took off after her, and I took off next. Coming to this town had been a bad idea. I had to be more careful.

I threw my wings out and pumped them up, down, up, down, until I was a good twenty feet off the ground. Then disaster struck. A sharp pain vibrated through my skull, and I gasped loudly, holding my head together with my hands. I fell like a stone, cracking my head hard on the cement floor.

My brain felt like it was going to explode inside my head. Hopefully my flock wouldn't be hit with bits of my shattered skull as it blew up my brain. _Thank God we weren't that high in the air, or I'd have been dead, _I thought faintly, but then it was replaced by a fresh wave of excruciating pain.

"Let me die, let me die!" I moaned, clutching my head tightly. Like before, things flashed before my eyes. Someone was talking in a foreign language. Someone was shrieking a blood-curdling scream of agony. I think it was me. Time didn't mean anything to me, in this strange place that I was in. Seconds could have been hours, hours could have been seconds. Weeks, maybe, passed by.

Suddenly, the pain stopped. I was able to move again. My eyes flew open, but I wasn't in the alley I had been in before. My flock wasn't around me. I was surrounded by absolute blackness, and it threatened to swallow me.

'_It's you they want,'_ a mysterious voice that sounded sickly sweet and far away called in a whisper. It sounded strangely familiar, though I couldn't place the sound. It didn't seem… Well… Human. '_You're hurting the flock. Leave,'_ it spoke again. I started to reach for it, but it began to fade away.

"No, wait!" I called out to it. "What do you mean?" But the ghost was gone. Only its words lingered now. I squeezed my eyes shut. The pain was returning. I could feel it… And I was right. It hit me with the same force it always did. I began once more to writhe in agony, and my eyes squeezed shut. I screamed, my throat aching, but I continued to scream because I couldn't hear anything else, and that scared me.

I vaguely became aware of a cool hand on my forehead, and I was shaking on the ground, as if an internal earthquake shook me. The pain began receding, until it was more of a severe aching.

"Nudge, Gazzy, take Total and go find a hotel for the night. She can't go anywhere like this. I'll stay here with her," a voice said, faintly, so that I wasn't sure if I imagined it. I was still whimpering in pain.

"Max, can you hear me?" The voice said again. I couldn't answer. Slowly, I stopped shaking, and instead just lay on the dirty cement of the alley, sweaty and weak. My eyes fluttered open, and I saw that it was Iggy who was with me.

"What happened?" I demanded, struggling to sit up. Iggy grabbed my shoulders and held me in place.

"Careful, Max. You hit your head really hard," he said. I did feel dizzy. "And actually, I was going to ask you that. One second, we were taking off, the next, you're falling towards the ground screaming bloody murder."

"Oh," I said, and left it at that. Hating feeling weak, especially when _he_ wasn't here, I forced myself to stand, much to Iggy's protests. Iggy was blind, and the next in charge after him was eleven year old Nudge. I had to be the strong one, no exceptions, like I had before. When _he _was still with us.

To myself, deep down, I allowed myself to think of the possibilities. If Fang were here, he wouldn't have let me fall. And since Fang WASN'T here, if I had another mid-air brain attack, I would die. Iggy was blind, and he wouldn't be able to catch me. And Nudge and Gazzy couldn't support me alone.

I shuddered nervously. I had gotten extremely lucky. If I had fallen from much higher, then no more Max.

"We found a place, a mile from here," Total said, trotting back into the alley. "Oh, Max, you're all right." He said. I smiled weakly at him. Iggy wrapped his arm around me, supporting me, just like Fang had used to do. With Fang- I mean, _that one person _(I will NOT think his name, it hurts too much!), it was always comforting, but with Iggy, it made me sick with memories.

I half walked, half was dragged to the hotel where Gazzy and Nudge were. Iggy handed the manager my credit card, and she suspiciously swiped it. I'm sure I looked like a drug addict. Iggy calmly explained that it was our parent's card and they were meeting us here after they went shopping. The manager seemed wary, but she clearly didn't expect kids like us to be able to produce a valid credit card otherwise, so she accepted our story.

It was so much more difficult to get hotel rooms without Angel. With that thought came to mind, a fresh wave of pain came with it, though this was a different kind.

We took the elevator, though we all felt scared about being trapped in a moving steel box, claustrophobic as we were, up to the third floor. Nudge ran our key card through the lock, and our door swung open to reveal a flea infested room. It really was disgusting, and that's even being generous.

The room had the faint musky smell of a cat. The lights overhead flickered softly, and one of the bulbs in the lamp was burned out. Every surface was covered with dust, which made Nudge sneeze. There was only one bed in the room, a queen size, which Gazzy and Iggy gallantly demanded the girls take. Normally, I would have overruled and said the youngest get the bed, but I knew that the boys would never allow it since my brain attack, so I agreed feebly. I hated being told what to do. I felt like puking. I didn't want to stay here.

"Ok, Nudge, first shower, let's go," I said, ignoring my feelings about the room and throwing our backpacks into a corner. _Though it_ _is nice not to have to live in the wild_, I thought, as the heater clicked on automatically. Nudge reached into her backpack and pulled out a fresh change of clothes, then dashed off to the bathroom. Gazzy, Iggy, and Total (whom we had smuggled in, hidden in Iggy's backpack), were all lying on the bed and watching the TV. Gazzy was complaining that it only received twenty two channels, all of which were very fuzzy and difficult to hear.

"No MTV," he moaned. I silently rolled my eyes.

"Guys, listen up. By the time Nudge gets out of the shower, I want all your dirty clothes in this bag," I said, grabbing a plastic bag labeled 'laundry' that the hotel had so graciously supplied us with. "And I want dinner started. Iggy, how about spaghetti tonight?" I said, taking into account that we had a small stove and pot.

"Yes, my favorite," he said, rising from the bed and heading to the backpacks to search for ingredients.

"Max," Gazzy called from the bed.

"What's up, kiddo?" I said, sitting next to him.

"You really should take it easy. Your brain attack looked pretty bad. You don't want to stress yourself out being a leader when you're sore and tired and stuff," he said wisely. I smiled at him; he was so mature for an eight year old.

"Don't worry, Gazzy, I'm fine," I said. He looked unconvinced, but nodded. "You're next for a shower." I glanced over at Total, who was already napping, lying on his back, feet in the air. "And when you're done, would you mind giving Total a bath? He stinks," I said, smiling at him. He laughed at me then went to gather his dirty clothes. My little guy was growing up.

--x--

The spaghetti was delicious, as usual. Although, unfortunately, the room only gave us two plates and three forks, so we had to take turns eating. The kids were just excited to be in a hotel room, even one as run down as this one. I guess compared to a cave, this was pretty nice. Then again, compared to the house we had left just 24 hours ago, this place was a dump.

It was going on eleven o'clock, and the younger ones were getting tired, so I knew bed time was coming up. There was nothing on TV, anyway. I softly smoothed the feathers of my beautiful wings, which were slightly wet still from my shower. God, it had felt so good. After just one day of no showers and I was so excited to take one. I was _definitely_ going soft.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nudge's eye lids drooping. It had been a long day, and I'm sure loosing two members of the flock (which, might I point out, was loosing one third of our family) was weighing heavily on everyone's minds. They had to be exhausted, because I knew I was.

"Bed time, guys!" I called, throwing a pillow and blanket at Gazzy. He caught them gracefully and collapsed onto the couch, which groaned in protest under his light weight.

"Aw, Max," he complained, though I saw him stifling a yawn behind his hand.

"We're leaving early tomorrow," I said, climbing into the squeaky bed and pulling the covers around me. I felt much better now, but Iggy and Gazzy still insisted I sleep in the bed. "We all need some sleep, so shut it," I commanded, and waited until they all lay down and shut their eyes before clicking the light off.

The warm and comfortable bed, no matter how infested with bugs, was begging me to close my eyes and go to sleep, but I fought it, keeping my eyes awake and my senses attune to everything until I was sure that the others were dreaming. Only when I heard the even breathing and snoring of my flock all around me did I allow myself to drift off….

--x--

Again, I felt myself falling backwards into darkness. Down, down, endlessly down, with no wings to stop me. Suddenly I hit the ground, hard, so that any normal person would have snapped their neck. But not me. I didn't feel anything at all. I was strangely numb and tingly.

The darkness seemed to be closing in around me, trying to drown me in its completeness. I felt suddenly very scared and alone, and I reached out a hand, grasping for something to hold on to. I was groping the air, looking for someone to help me. I started to run, frantically searching for something, someone that would tell me I wasn't so alone.

Panic was beginning to set in, causing my breathing to become ragged. The only sound was my feet pounding, and it rang out all around me, threatening to drive me insane. Tears streamed down my face now, and I was scared of the dizzying aloneness I felt. Feeling helpless, I collapsed to my knees.

I heard a low click from behind me and I whipped around to see what the source of the sound was. Wiping the tears from my face and eyes, I saw it was an old fashioned TV, and it seemed to be showing home videos of the flock, though they weren't ones that I recognized. I realized that these were clips of the future, because everyone looked so much older.

As if someone had changed the channel with an unseen remote, an epic battle was now being shown. It was the whole flock, including Fang, battling against Omega and about a thousand flyboys. We were clearly losing. I watched as one by one, my remaining flock members were killed in the battle. I was horrified yet strangely mystified by what our futures held, and was unable to look away.

Finally, everyone had been killed save for me. I was surrounded, and I stepped back as twenty or so guns pointed at me. It was terrifying to watch myself, my calm façade broken down, confused and hopeless. Again, the channel seemed to change, now depicting Mom's house in Arizona. She and Ella were tied up in the kitchen, and they were beaten and bloodied. Omega was holding them hostage, using them as bait to get me.

The TV again changed channels, rapidly flicking back and forward until the images all blurred together into an indecipherable 'picture'. Suddenly, it stopped. I was in darkness again. A voice, foreign to me, called out softly.

"Leave," it said. I heard Nudge cry out in pain, though I couldn't tell where it came from. "You have to leave! They only want you, they'll kill the others!" It shrieked so loudly that I had to cover my ears. I heard Fang, calling out my name in panic. I heard Gazzy crying and Total whining. "Now!" It cried again, sounding desperate with alarm. Suddenly, an invisible hand was pushing on me, forcing me to go backwards, and then there was a blinding bright light, and it was over.

--x--

My eyes flew open, and I wondered where I was. Only when I noticed the ragged and dirty bed sheets on top of me did I remember I was in the hotel room with the flock. I was breathing heavily, and sweat poured off of me.

"It was just a dream, just a dream," I whispered to myself. But even I knew what I had to do. I tiptoed to the bathroom and washed my face. Then silently, I sat down at the tiny desk we had been supplied. I was about to write the hardest letter I ever would have to write. I picked up the pen already there which advertised the hotel's name, and it quivered in my hand. I set it down. Then I picked it up. Then I set it down again. This would be hard.

--x--

_Next one up later this week. Review!!_

_Sari_


	14. Parting Words

_Ok, as promised, here's chapter 14, and it turned out OK in my opinion. The next chapter I am struggling with, so it might be awhile before that one is up because it is important to me to get it right. As always, read, review, love._

--x--

Fang was exhausted. If ever it were possible to fall asleep in mid-air, Fang was about to do it. His eyes were already closing, but he knew he couldn't stop flying. He had to catch up to his family before he lost them again. Max was sure to be more careful about their doings after they had landed themselves in the news. Then again, maybe they didn't even know.

He had flown hard all night, and here he was, looking down at the place where the Flyboy battle had taken place. He wondered vaguely how far away they were now. Considering it was close to 2 AM, he guessed they were probably asleep somewhere.

But where? Which direction would they have gone from here? Definitely not back the way they had come, and definitely a ways away from where he was now. He figured they were probably seeking the warm weather, and thus, the beach, their all time favorite hang out place. He wasn't completely sure, though.

How long would it be until he heard more news of them? It could be a long time, especially because Max knew they were not only hiding from Flyboys and Erasers and the School, but now Fang was looking for them too. They would probably be extra careful for awhile.

He swooped lower, checking out the battle field. Somehow, he felt a little better, just being somewhere where they had been recently. He closed his eyes and tried to focus. _If I were Max, and hiding from Fang, where would I go? If I were Max, and hiding from Fang, where would I go?_ Definitely not Dr. Martinez's house, because that would, normally, be one of the first places Fang would check. If he didn't know Max so well as to know she wouldn't go there. He frowned to himself. He had no idea.

--x--

Nudge lay sleeping in the bed, deeply and completely asleep. She was having a wonderful dream in which she was a host of a TV talk show, and she was paid to talk as much as she wanted about whatever she wanted. She smiled in her sleep. She was interviewing Oprah, and Oprah congratulated her on her massive success and asked for pointers….

A harsh sound woke her up. She unwillingly opened her eyes, struggling against the draws of sleep. At first she thought it was a dying cat, or a squirrel on helium, but when she finally dragged her eyes open, she saw it was Total. He had made the agonized noise, and as irritated as Nudge was, she was also curious. Iggy and Gazzy, also appearing to be just waking up, had expressions on their faces similar to what Nudge imagined her face to look like.

"Total, what the heck is going on?" Iggy demanded, sitting up in the recliner.

"She's gone, gone, kidnapped, drugged-"

"What are you talking about?" Nudge said, her voice sounding still half asleep and strange, even to herself.

"Max is gone!" That certainly acted like a strong coffee. Nudge suddenly didn't feel tired at all. She sat bolt up in bed, sending the sheets around her flying.

"What?!" Gazzy exclaimed. "How the hell could they have broken in here without us knowing?" Total lay on the foot of the bed, still crying and whining.

"I don't think the School got in," Nudge said as calmly as she could, though she felt like breaking down, and her voice shook.

"What do you mean?" Iggy asked her. Nudge merely held up a piece of paper in response. Gazzy ran over and jumped on the bed, attempting to snatch the paper from Nudge's hand.

"Let me read it!" Gazzy cried.

"Read what? What is it?" Iggy asked, looking confused.

"Max left a note. She left," Nudge replied, her voice cracking, and not believing the words even as she said them. Total howled even louder.

"Well, what does it say?" Iggy asked, sounding both irritated at not being able to read it himself and sad. He also sounded a little awed. Iggy, now the oldest, was the new leader, even though he was blind. He held the flock's future in his hands and his hands alone.

"Dear Iggy, Gazzy, Nudge, and Total," Nudge read, her voice cracking again as she fought to keep her emotions under control. First Angel, then Fang, now Max! What on earth was going to happen to the flock?

--x--

_Dear Iggy, Gazzy, Nudge, and Total,_

_Please understand that even as I write these words it is tearing me apart. You know that I didn't want to leave you guys. Firstly, I love you all more than you know. You're my life, my family, and my very best friends. At times, when I thought I wasn't strong enough or I couldn't make it, it was the thoughts of you guys that kept me going. _

_That's why I have to do this. I'm leaving to take down the school, once and for all. It couldn't be all of us. I couldn't risk putting you guys in danger to help me complete my mission. When I'm done, even if I die, you guys will be done running. I swear to you, you'll be safe. _

_Please don't come after me or try to help. This is something I've got to do alone. _

_Iggy, you're in charge. Take care of them. If I live, I will find you, and we'll be together again. Stay out of harm, stay safe, and stay together. I love you all._

_Max_

--x--

"What are we going to do?" Nudge cried from the bed. Iggy sat next to her, trying to calm her, and Total still lay collapsed on the bed, whining. Gazzy sat apart from the others, confused. Did Max not think they were strong enough to help her defeat the white coats? Did she think they were too little? Too weak? All Gazzy wanted to do was help Max, and she had abandoned them with only a note and a feeble excuse. He supposed he understood why she had gone alone, but she would have had such a better chance of making it if only she'd let them help.

"We'll figure something out. We'll be okay," Iggy soothed. Gazzy wasn't so sure. He had no idea how they would be able to stay together without Max _or_ Fang. When Max wasn't there, Fang was the leader. But then they had to leave Fang because his loyalty had been questioned, which now left Iggy in charge.

But Iggy was blind, so he wasn't probably capable of making the best leadership decisions. After Iggy came Nudge then Gazzy, and he knew that they couldn't lead if their lives depended on it. There was always Total, he thought. Gazzy laughed a little to himself at the thought of Total leading the remains of their flock, but then he pushed the thought quickly away. He would have to help lead now.

"We're doomed!" Total whined pathetically. Gazzy decided to take charge. _Think like Max, _the 8, almost 9 near old told himself. First thing's first. They had to get out of this hotel, for one thing. Then they needed a plan.

"We need to get out of this hotel room. We've been here too long." Gazzy said. Nudge wiped her eyes and looked at him, and Iggy's sightless eyes also stared in his direction. He felt proud of himself. "Then we need to find somewhere safer, and stay there until we have a better plan," Gazzy said.

"You're right," Iggy said. "Let's pack up our stuff and get going. The sooner, the better," he said, taking on a stern, leader-y voice. Nudge and Gazzy wordlessly obeyed, gathering all of their things, though Nudge still cried and Total still wailed. _We'll be all right,_ Gazzy thought. _Won't we?_

--x--

Fang ate, hiding in the small cave he had found. He decided that he needed to rest, then he'd be right back out again, searching for Max and the others. Over the small embers left from the fire, he rubbed his chilly hands and wondered where they possibly could be.

As soon as he was done eating, he took off. Fang didn't want them to get any further away. He was passing over the small town not far from his cave when he saw three dots in the distance. He squinted, trying to see, and shifted his course towards them. They couldn't be birds, for they were too big. Not planes, for they were much too low and small and slow. Could it be…?

"No," he said to himself. "It couldn't be," but he allowed himself to hope. Could, by complete coincidence, he have found his family again? He was excited, but still somewhat cautions. How would he be received? And what if it wasn't really them? What a horrible let down that would be. He flew as fast as his tired wings would carry him, still hoping for the best, crying out joyfully when he realized that he did recognize them. _Iggy! Nudge! Gazzy! Even Total!_ Where was Max? She was probably in their cave or hotel room or getting food, Fang concluded, but he was too overjoyed at the sight of them.

"Iggy!" Fang yelled as loud as he could. "Nudge! Gazzy!" The three AWOL members of his family turn around hesitantly at the sound of his voice. He saw them debating on whether to stay where they were, hovered in the sky, or to run. Fly, rather. Apparently, they decided to stay, because Fang reached them in no time.

He could feel the smile so wide on his face that it hurt. It felt so good to see them again, even though they had only been apart for awhile. Fang had been with them every day his whole life, so even a few days apart had him aching to see them. He would have hugged them if he could, but being in the air, hugging was kind of difficult.

"How'd you find us?" Iggy asked sternly, using a voice Max taught them. Gazzy and Nudge fell behind him slightly, looking bashful, though they all looked secretly relieved to see him.

"You were on the news," he said. "Flyboy fight. Where's Max?" Nudge and Gazzy exchanged nervous glances.

"Fang, she's gone," Nudge said finally. Total whimpered from her bag.

"What?" he said. Fang had thought, finally, they were whole again, but now… They weren't.

"We'll explain later. Let's land," Iggy said.

"Follow me, I found a cave nearby." Fang said, disheartened slightly, then turned and flew the short way back to where he had just come. His heart felt heavy in his chest. They landed, and Gazzy automatically bent down to relight the fire Fang had extinguished minutes before. Nudge launched herself into Fang's arms and gave him a fierce hug. Even Total licked his hand.

"First thing's first," Iggy said, pulling Nudge away from him as soon as he landed. Fang numbly had collapsed onto the ground. "Did you or did you not make a deal with Jeb?" Iggy demanded.

"What?" Fang cried, stunned. "Well, no. Kind of." Iggy crossed his arms, and Gazzy and Nudge looked skeptical. "It wasn't like that," Fang explained. Then he launched into the tale of what had happened that day. He told them everything, from when they arrived at the mall until just recently, when he had woken up and found them gone. He didn't care if he was breaking his deal with Jeb. They had to know the truth. "And then, well, I ran into you guys, and that's it," Fang concluded his story.

Nudge was crying, and Total was sitting in her lap, whining. He wondered what their story was.

"Fang," Iggy began. "Max saw you. In the alley. She was flying around and she saw you with Omega and Jeb, and she assumed that you were working for them, or made a deal with them or something. She watched you like a hawk for any sign you were. She didn't say anything, though, even to us, until you hit her that one day. We thought you might have had something to do with…. With Angel. So we left."

To Fang, all the pieces were falling into place. He understood now why they left, what they thought, why Max was mad at him, and what they must have assumed. He felt horrible: this was his fault. Everything that had gone wrong all came back to him. Man, maybe karma really did exist.

"But we totally understand now, Fang," Nudge said, hugging him again. "We know that it wasn't your fault or anything. We totally forgive you."

"We have a problem, though," Gazzy said, digging into his backpack and handing Fang a tiny piece of paper. "We found this an hour ago." He said. Fang looked at the piece of paper in his hands. It was yellow, and had an advertisement for a hotel on the top, and smelled horribly old. But the thing that was most important to Fang was the familiar handwriting on it. He scanned it quickly then looked up, shocked.

Nudge rubbed her red and puffy eyes, and even Gazzy worked to keep his emotions under control. Max was gone. She was going to the School by herself, and she was going to try to take it down. And she was going to die. All Fang knew was he had to help her. He had to get there in time, and he had to fight with her.

"Ok," Fang said, thinking quickly. "Here's the plan. You guys are going to stay here, and camp out. You'll be safe here. I'm going after Max. Iggy, you're in charge. When I get Max, I'll bring her back here. If the Flyboys show up, beat the crap out of them then fly back home. If somehow they find you there, Dr. M's. Got it?" He said. The others nodded. He held out a fist, and they stacked their hands on top of his. He tapped their hands, and then he took a running leap off the cliff edge.

He took nothing with him. He wouldn't need it. He just had to get to Max before she got herself killed. At the very least, he had to explain that he wasn't a traitor, and he didn't make a deal with Jeb and Omega. As long as she knew his story, even if she didn't believe him yet, he'd be alright. And maybe, if he was lucky, he could talk her out of attacking the School alone. He knew that her mission was a kamikaze one, and he needed to stop her.

--x--

_Review, pretty please, and let me know what you think! I know its summer (where I am anyway) so I should be writing a ton, but ironically, I'm extremly busy now and I'm having trouble writing. So I will write as quickly as possible and try to get the next chapter out asap. Thanks to everyone who reviewed. Keep it up! :)_

_Sari_


	15. Night Attack

_OK I AM SOOOOOOOOOOOOO SORRY THAT THIS TOOK HALF THE SUMMER TO WRITE! It was a hectic summer. I had summer school and soccer practice everyday plus tournaments and a mission trip to Mexico... I am making excuses and I shouldn't. I'm sorry it has taken me so long, but here is this chapter._

--x--

I flew, determined and fierce, my anger breI flew, determined and fierce, my anger brewing in me like an imminent storm. _Stupid Itex,_ I thought. I'll teach you to attack my family. When I was through with them, they'd never hurt one of us again. They'd never hurt anyone again. I was close now, a few miles north of the School, and I was quickly closing the distance. I decided to use stealth rather than the usual bang I preferred, because that would probably be less expected. The dark night's shroud would aid me in that, at least.

As I continued to soar, my thoughts strayed to the flock. Had they gotten my letter yet? Surely they had. I wondered what they thought. Would they forgive me when this was all over? What would they do with me gone? Was Iggy really ready to lead? I debated briefly with myself if I should turn around and go back. This plan seemed foolish now that I was nearing the School. What could I do, alone, against all of them?

I stopped myself from thinking that way. I had to do this. It was the only way to make sure the flock would be safe, once and for all. Even if I only took out two Flyboys, if it helped to protect the others, it was worth it.

A new thought came to me, and it made my stomach stir. What if I didn't make it? Would the flock be captured? Again, I forced myself to lock that thought far away, and fixed my mind on positive thoughts. This had to work. I'd take down Itex, and then find the flock, they'd forgive me, and we'd live happily ever after. That is what I kept repeating to myself.

I wondered what Fang was doing now. When he discovered that all of us were gone, what had he done? Had he rejoiced? Thrown a party? Called up Omega and Jeb? _No,_ I realized, _Fang wouldn't do that_. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was probably a mistake for the flock to leave Fang behind. We needed him. Even though he didn't talk much, he was an essential member of the flock. He was the one that kept me strong so I could keep the others strong and everything else together. I had clearly been a mess since we left him.

There was nothing I could do now. I may never see Fang again. What are the odds that we'd just run into him? And I was not about to go looking for him. That would mean begging for forgiveness, which would put my pride at stake. Besides, what if I was right? What if he really was working for Itex? I couldn't, wouldn't take that chance.

I needed to stop thinking about these things. It was distracting me when I should be thinking up plans for how I was going to blow Itex up, or whatever I was planning on doing. I forced my mind to focus, and I flew, faster then before.

As soon as the School was in sight, I circled above it, once, twice, checking out what new security they may have. Lucky for me, they didn't have much. I was once again drawn back into memories of when I had last been here. I shuddered just remembering.

Shifting my weight, I lightly drifted towards the ground. I located a perfect landing spot, around the corner of the main building, where a damaged security camera was. Actually, damaged was probably the wrong word. The camera was completely gone, leaving only drooping, exposed wire in its place. I touched down quietly, knowing that since the camera was gone, I had just made an invisible entrance.

I listened hard for the sound of an approaching foe. Since the camera was gone, they may have tightened security in this area. I knew, from my memory of the many grim years spent here, that the door into the main corridor was just around the corner. There were usually at least one or two guards inside, which I could easily disable. I listened for a second more, and then slunk around the corner, ready to push open the door and dash inside, when suddenly, something grabbed me around the waist. A hand clamped over my mouth, and suddenly, I was flying through the air.

At first, I struggled, kicking and withering and trying to throw my wings out, but then I felt my attacker touch down on the roof of the building next to where I had been standing moments before. They dropped me onto the roof's cold metal surface, and the dark hid the attacker's face from view. But that didn't matter. I jumped instantly to my feet, and without stopping to think, I stepped back into my attacker and tried to flip them over my shoulder, but at the exact same moment he countered his weight, stopping my momentum.

"It's Fang," he hissed in my ear, as if _that_ were going to make me feel better. Faintly, I heard a guard talking below, and instantly we both dropped flat against the roof. The second the deep voice below faded away, I grabbed Fang's arm and cinched it tightly behind him, forcing him onto his stomach. "What the heck-" he began, but I cut him off.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't throw you off this building right now," I whisper-screamed. He resisted halfheartedly, but I already had him pinned, and he knew it. I leaned down harder, twisting his arm further, and he sucked in a gasp of pain. I was so angry, I would be glad if this broke his arm. First he betrays the flock, and then he decides to ruin my "blow up the School" mission!

The crazy thing was that I didn't want to throw Fang off the roof. He'd be able to effortlessly catch himself with his wings before he hit the ground, but I still didn't want him to splat. Even crazier was that I wanted to believe that still, somehow, Fang wasn't here to ruin my mission.

Unexpectedly, Fang flipped over, surprising me and knocking me off balance, so I not only released his arm, but he had time to grab both my wrists so that I couldn't fight back, and pressed his body against mine. Now I was the one who was pinned.

"Max, stop struggling!" he snapped, while I continued to kick and thrash. But he was stronger than me, and he held me down.

"You dirty, backstabbing, lying, god damn traitor-" he clamped a hand over my mouth.

"Would you just listen?" I glared at him, making my eyes as steely as I could. "Jeb and Omega cornered me that day in the alley. They beat me up and told me I had to be tested for this new drug of theirs '_or else'_. I thought it as an empty threat, so I didn't say anything, and then on the way home, Omega killed Angel. I came back here like they told me to and was pumped full of this drug, which was supposed to raise my anger and aggression levels, which it did, which is why, when you caught me sneaking back into the house, I hit you. The deal was: if I agreed to be tested for this drug, then the flock would be left alone, forever." He let out a deep sigh. "I did this to protect us, and look what's happened."

I felt the pressure on my hands lessen, so he was now longer holding me down, just holding me. He peeled his hand back from my mouth, and waited, looking timid, as if he was waiting for me to start yelling at him again. Honestly, I didn't know what to say. I lay there, the icy cold of the roof stunning me, as it all sank in.

"Why should I believe you?" I finally managed to get out. My voice was soft, almost bruised.

"I haven't turned you in yet, have I?" He asked.

"_Yet_ is the keyword," I spit back out. I saw the traces of a smile on his face. His story seemed plausible, but I still wasn't sure I could trust him. "Why didn't you tell us?" I asked suspiciously.

"That was part of the deal. I didn't want anyone else to get hurt, so I didn't."

"And what are you doing here?" I demanded.

"I couldn't very well let you have all the fun taking down the school," he replied. I took a deep breath. More than anything, I wanted to trust him again. This was Fang, for Christ's sake. I'd always trusted him. And knowing my odds in the battle that was about to take place, I decided I needed to trust him. Why else would he be up here with me, preparing to help me fight?

"Well, the kids will be glad to know that you aren't a traitorous, backstabbing, god damn lying pig, or whatever it is I called you." I couldn't see his smile this time, but I felt its radiance all the same. He rolled off of me and into a crouch, and offered a hand. I grabbed it and he helped pull me to my feet.

"They already know. I ran into them in Nevada, and they showed me that little letter you left for them." I winced. "Not your best idea, Max," he said.

"I had a brain attack while you were gone, and in it I had like... Well, a vision, or something. And it said that the School was after me, only me, and not the flock, which is why I decided to come take them down. I couldn't very well wait for fate to step in and kill the flock, like the vision showed me, so I decided to stop it." He nodded, leaning slightly over the edge of the building, scanning the grounds below. I did the same.

As I had thought, the main entrance to the School was right where I had been before Fang grabbed me. Other than that, the grounds were completely deserted and dark, which I guess was understandable, considering it was about one o'clock in the morning. Even prisons have fewer guards at night, which I guess the School kind of was.

Wordlessly, I glanced at Fang, and feeling my gaze on him, he turned to look at me. I gave a nod, and then simultaneously, we spread our wings and slipped off the edge of the roof, straight down, just out of the view of the security camera above the door. Acting on instinct again, I reached up and knocked loudly on the door.

"What are you _doing_?" Fang snarled quietly.

"Hey, can you guys give us a hand with this?" I called out in the manliest voice I could manage. Then I grabbed Fang's arm and pulled him out of the way. The door swung open, and a security guard sauntered out, only to be met with my foot in his shocked face. Fang quickly and automatically grabbed the other guard and slammed his face into the side of the building, gabbing his access card in the same swift motion. We placed the two unconscious guards in a bush beside the door, carefully out of sight from the cameras and anyone who might walk by.

Fang scanned the access card and the door clicked open, and we snuck inside. Right next to the door was the entrance to the guard room, whose guards Fang and I had just disabled. Glancing around quickly, we tiptoed down the hallway, keeping alert for cameras and white coats.

We ducked low past two windows into labs, then darted to the end of the hallway. We were trying decide if we should go right into the computer room or left to the stairs **(the hallway is a T and they don't know which way to go. Don't know if I made that clear.) **when a voice spoke from behind us.

"You're early," the voice said. The sound of his projected voice bounced of the walls and echoed in my ears, making it seem so much closer than I knew he was. I'd heard his voice many times before, but never like this. In my head, his voice was different, but Jeb was _here_, actually speaking to me. I wondered for a second how he had approached and escaped mine and Fang's notice, especially since our hearing was advanced and we were listening extra hard, but that thought was replaced with shock. He was here, alive, in the flesh.

I'd imagined many times what I'd say when I met up with Jeb again. I'd gone over scenarios in my head that ranged from rage to hugging the only dad I knew. And he was more of a dad than I had originally thought, back in the E shaped house, young and naive. He was my real dad. But now that he was really here, and I was seeing him, I felt nothing. I internally slapped myself. I needed to focus.

"Early for what?" I hissed softly to Fang, hating to feel out of the loop. But he ignored me.

"Yeah well, sorry I didn't call ahead and make an appointment," Fang said smoothly, his stance becoming slightly defensive, his eyes locking like hard steel on Jeb.

"Ah, so you haven't told her. I was wondering what she was doing here. It's nice to see you so soon. Nice, but unexpected." Jeb said, taking a few casual steps towards us, the sound echoing loudly, which made me wonder again how we hadn't heard his approach. "Your shoulder has healed nicely, Max. I thought it would leave a bigger scar, the way Omega described the fight to me." My gaze shot down to my right shoulder, where my t-shirt had slipped down, revealing my bare skin and scar.

I glanced up towards Fang's face, remembering how he had cared for me, and his eyes were locked on the scar too, his eyes momentarily displaying his pain. He felt responsible.

"I'd say I'm sorry," a different voice said, from behind Jeb. "But I'm not." A faint shape was visible in the shadow, and then instantly, Omega was at Jeb's side. The motion was lightning fast: if you blinked, you would have missed his movement all together. We both slipped into our defensive stances again.

"Well," I said, finally deciding to take charge, "If you won't apologize, then we'll just go do what we came here to do, and you guys can go back to sleep and pretend you never saw us." I took a step back, grabbing onto Fang's arm and dragging him with me.

"No, actually, I don't think that will be happening." Jeb and Omega took two synchronized steps towards us, closing the space we had just created. "See, we have another few tests we'd like to run, and we believe you'll be the perfect patient," Jeb said, nodding to me. Fang let out a low growl from his chest, and Omega sneered, looking menacing, even from far away. I hadn't forgotten the last time we had run into each other.

"Maybe another time," I said, stepping back again. We began to back away slowly, and turned left, towards the staircase, where I knew there'd be a window so we could get the hell out of there. When we reached the end of the hallway, Jeb called out to us.

"Do you really want to leave the others here, Max?" That made me freeze. Slowly, I turned around to face Jeb, who reached out and pulled a thin cord, exposing a window into a lab. Through the slits in the blinds, I could see Nudge, Gazzy, Iggy and Total, all strapped to tables and restrained with Velcro straps, as we had been before. They appeared to be sleeping, but I knew that they had to be heavily sedated**. **

Fury again overwhelmed me. I lunged at Jeb, fist drawn back and snarling, but Omega darted in front of my target and blocked my path. In the blink of an eye, he released a lethal kick to my stomach, instantly knocking the breath out of me and sending me skidding along the concrete floor back where I had come from. Fang dashed forward and wrapped an arm around my waist, helping me to my feet. The brief touch felt like an electric shock, running through my whole body. He must have felt the intensity of it too, because he released me instantly and stared at me in a very soft, un-Fang-like way. I heard Jeb snicker slightly, and I ripped my eyes away from Fang's to glare at Jeb.

"How the _hell_ did you capture them?" I snarled, shaking with anger and preparing to attack again.

"Omega confined them shortly after Fang left to follow you. They were easy to capture, what with Iggy being blind and Gazzy and Nudge being so small. I understand that it wasn't a hassle at all." He snapped the blinds shut, hiding the kids from my sight. "If you insist upon fighting 

Omega, which I'm sure you couldn't win, then let's just say that it could be very bad for those three. And the dog, of course."

I glanced at Fang, and his face showed a mixture of rage and terror. On one hand, we could fight, but then Nudge, Iggy, Gazzy, and Total would suffer. On the other hand, we could surrender, and be forced to relive the tests from our nightmares, but at least they wouldn't be harmed. I felt my eyes begin to fill with tears. Either way, it would end bad.

"Contain them," Jeb said to Omega, waving his hand casually in the air. "Lock Max in lab C290, and put Fang in an available crate on the 3rd floor." With that, Jeb began to walk away, as if this capture would be so boring he couldn't watch.

"You said you wouldn't hurt them ever again!" Fang yelled after him, tightening his hands into tight fists, which shook with fury. Looking at him then, instantly everything became clear. I knew how I felt, though I didn't say it and I could barely even think it. But it was there, in my heart, and it ached. I felt my heart squeeze in my chest out of love and fear.

"You broke the deal, didn't you?" Jeb replied, smiling an evil grin then disappearing into the lab that held the majority of the flock. I didn't want to be subjected to the needles and tests. I couldn't stand to be separated from Fang, especially after my epiphany RE: my feelings for him. And I certainly didn't want to be separated from the flock either. But what choice did we have? It was our surrender or the flock's pain.

I turned to face Fang, whose face was scrunched up in pain and anger. When he saw me looking at him, his face softened then became impassive as he tried to contain his fear for my sake. I couldn't take it. There was still something I had to say. I took a step forward, closing the small space between us, and wrapped my arms tightly around his waist. The tears that had been growing in my eyes since I'd seen the flock finally burst from my eyes as I let all my emotions drain from me.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," I cried, hugging him tighter. At that moment, it didn't matter that Omega was right there, watching us, or that Jeb was in the room next door. All that mattered were those words, which I kept repeating, mumbling and rambling on into his chest.

His arms wrapped around my shoulders, holding me closer to him, and he leaned his cheek on the top of my head.

"It's okay, Max," he said simply, low in my ear, but it was those simple words and his effortless movement of hugging me back that made me soar. I felt like I was flying higher than I had ever flown before. I was trying to portray all my feelings in that single intense hug. All the things I had never said. I…….I loved him. He pulled back, though his arms still stayed just as tight around me, and I stared into his eyes, just trying to convey everything. We were so close…

Suddenly, Omega flew at us at an alarming speed and wrapped both of his hands around mine and Fang's necks. I had forgotten he was even there. His vice-like grip only tightened as he literally lifted us off the floor and threw us into the wall. Pain filled me as I fell onto my stomach, gasping for air and holding my head, which was now gushing blood. It throbbed so much that my vision became slightly blurry with light-headed-ness. I glanced briefly at Fang, who was also on the floor, sporting a cut like mine on his arm.

"I don't have time for your romantic lives," Omega said, his silver eyes gleaming. In a swift moment, he reached down, grabbed my hair, and threw me over his shoulder. I couldn't help it, but I screamed in pain. My constant kicking and punching seemed to have no effect on him. It was like he had no pain receptors. Through my watery eyes, I saw Fang struggle to his feet then take off after us, his sneakers pounding loudly against the floor.

When Fang reached us, Omega, hardly slowing, turned and kicked Fang in the stomach, and he went flying. I saw him hit the floor hard, then struggle to get up again, but he collapsed back onto the floor.

"No!" He cried weakly, and I knew instantly that he was too hurt to help me.

"Fang!" I screamed, still whaling on Omega, my eyes locked with Fang's until we rounded the corner and disappeared out of sight.

--x--

_Hope you liked it! After I confer with my beta I will write the next chapter ASAP. I promise this time! Leave lots of comments, please._

_  
Sari_


	16. Two Kinds of Torture

Fang's eyes locked with Max's, and only the display of her rarest emotion of panic and fear was enough for Fang to force himself to rise up off the floor, gasping for air and dripping blood, to try and save her. When he placed his weight on his injured arm, which displayed a deep gash that was bleeding through his sleeve, he collapsed, and smacked his head against the floor so hard that his vision began to blur.

Momentarily his sight faded out completely, but he forced himself not to pass out and managed to open his eyes a fraction of an inch to see Max kicking savagely, trying to shake free of Omega's unbreakable iron grip on her hair that had lifted her off her feet. In that moment Fang was reminded of why she was leader and he was not. Even though her head was gushing crimson blood that was soaking into her hair and splattering her clothes, she was still able to fight and struggle with all she had against Omega, while he couldn't raise himself off the floor.

He felt so guilty and awful that he was sure he'd never be able to forgive himself. Fang had made a promise not to let anything happen to her, and he had practically let her waltz back into the School, where she'd be tortured till she couldn't move. And it was completely his fault that she had been captured. If only he hadn't been so thoughtless… If only he'd stopped her…

Get up, get up, he urged himself, but it was no use. His muscles would not let him. Even as the floor on which he lay flat began to tilt sideways, and he began to see stars, and the lights began to fade out, Fang still tried to crawl after them. All Fang knew was he had to save her from Omega. He could not allow her to undergo more tests. He knew that that was her greatest fear.

"No!" Fang cried weakly, seeing through faded vision that they had progressed further down the hall and were disappearing out of his sight. Soon there would be no hope of him helping her at all.

"Fang!" Max screamed, at the top of her lungs. The sound echoed off the walls, bouncing down the hallway and replaying in his head, the noise piercing him as much as a knife.

Max, Fang tried to call back, but the wind was knocked out of him and it didn't come out. He made one final effort to follow, though he didn't think he'd be able to do much about Max's predicament in his present condition anyway, and attempted to fight against the heavy stones pressing against his chest. That's when the darkness overcame him and he faded into unconsciousness.

--x--

That was the last thing Fang remembered of that night. That night was a week and a half ago. He had woken up two days later strapped in place via Velcro straps to an operation table in an empty

lab. At first, Fang was suspicious, wondering if that had really happened, or if it was just an appalling dream. He wondered if he was still dreaming.

It was that last thing Max had said to him that made him sure it had not been a dream. _Fang._ His name. The way she had said it, so desperate and intense and hopeful that he would be able to somehow help her. Ever since he had woken up, her voice crying his name had been echoing in his head. The sound was like a constant nightmare, reminding him again and again of his failure and of his worst fear.

Fang had looked around the lab quickly for the others, though it wasn't quickly at all. He had been heavily sedated, and his head merely spun lethargically from one side to the other. He forced his heavy eye lids to stay open as he tried to evaluate his situation.

Where was Max? Where were the others? In the back of his mind, he pondered another question, though he dared not dwell on it too long. What if, this time, they didn't escape?

While Fang was still pondering that question, a white coat that Fang had never seen before entered the lab and informed him that he had broken a rib and torn a muscle in his arm, but thanks to his advanced healing powers, he was well on his way to recovery and was almost ready to begin testing. Fang had grilled the white coat for information on the flock, but the evil scientist had refused to tell him anything other than he needed to rest up. Fang didn't sleep a wink.

The next day, Fang had been put through some regular check-up tests, then had been given another dose of Reoloplex, after which he was placed in a metal box where the white coats could observe him but Fang could do no harm. He merely re injured himself trying to fight his Flyboy escorts.

The following three days were spent in a cage in a room filled with other caged experiments, and though he didn't see the flock, he was too afraid to call out to them. He was fed small scraps and given minimal water, and no one came to test on him at all. The white coats may as well have tested on him, though, for Fang felt severe pain anyway.

The next five days were a haze a vigorous tests for Fang. He was placed in the wind tunnel and had to fly into it, had to run through the maze, had to lift impossible weights. But the most important thing about Fang's testing was that he forced to compete with Omega. If he lost, he was given no food that night. Even though he felt like he wanted to just drop dead, he felt like the flock was counting on him, so he kept pushing himself. The whole time, Fang was secretly studying Omega, trying to find a weakness. Every hero (or in this case, villain) had a kryptonite, and Fang was more determined than ever to discover Omega's.

--x--

_This chapter, though not very productive to the story line, I wanted to write. I felt like I needed to explain the harsh testing that they flock had to endure and the emotions that Fang is feeling, and the personal struggles he is dealing with. I know this is a short chapter, but I've already started to work on the next one. __Please comment._

_Sari_


	17. Unusual Heroes

Sorry this took so long. I've been quite busy lately, and I didn't have anyone to beta for me. If you are interested in being my beta, PLEASE message me. Read and review.

----x----

Gazzy lay curled up in his cage, cold, numb, and unfeeling. First, they had killed Angel, his sweet little sister, his world. And now, he and the flock were captured, locked up in the School. He felt small and helpless, more helpless then he had ever felt in his whole life. He had lost hope of rescue a few days ago. The tear tracks that ran down his face were testimony to his breakdown, and the fact that his eyes were void of tears now showed just how broken he was. His eyes were incapable of crying anymore.

Suddenly, he heard a click as a security card ran through the scanner. It was probably another white coat, here to take him for more testing. He whimpered, drawing back further into the cage. _Strange_, he thought. Gazzy hadn't heard them approaching. It didn't matter, though. They were here to take him away for the same purpose, regardless if he had been ready for them.

The door opened, and into the lab where he was being kept slipped a tiny girl with a curly mane of dark hair and skin that looked like mocha. Gazzy was sure he was dreaming. He didn't think he had ever been happier to see her face.

"Hey Gasman," Nudge said, setting down a clipboard in her hand and reaching down to unlock his cage. "Let's get out of here."

----x----

**EARLIER….**

Nudge's eyes fluttered open, and she found herself staring at an unfamiliar ceiling. _Where am I?_ She thought. She felt tired, but it wasn't the usual tired. It was a more urgent tired, like she shouldn't be awake just yet. It was a strange sensation, and she gave into the feeling, letting her eyes drift closed again, blocking out the unpleasant florescent lights above her. She breathed in deeply, ready to fall back asleep, but instead of pure, fresh air, the unpleasant smell of antiseptics reached her nose. Instantly, her eyes flew open, and she bolted upright. Or she tried to. Her arms were strapped down to the table beneath her, which she now realized was cold and hard. Like metal.

"Oh, no," she whispered to herself. Because suddenly, she knew exactly where she was. Nudge was back at the School. Frantically, she looked around. The small, white room, nearly identical to all of the other rooms in the School, had a single door and window, which was imbedded with chicken wire. To her left, Gazzy and Iggy were strapped to tables similar to her own with Velcro restraints, with IVs in their arms. She was sure the IVs had sedatives in them because she noticed she had one too, sticking out of her right arm. To Nudge's right was Total, locked in a kennel, twitching in his sleep.

But what had happened? The last thing that she remembered was being in the cave. It was late, and Iggy was telling her and Gazzy and Total to go to sleep, that he'd take watch. Then Omega had shown up. She remembered screaming when he suddenly appeared, then crying out as the three of them tried to defend themselves and failed. She remembered Omega tying them up, and the three of them were so injured that they couldn't even fight back. Total had been so bloody they thought he was dead. And then…. Darkness.

She heard Iggy moan and shift around on the table. She rolled her head to look at him, and saw him breathe in then become completely paralyzed with terror, as he, too, realized where they were.

"Hello?" Iggy whispered, barley moving his lips. The sound was so silent that even with her super enhanced hearing, Nudge could barley hear him. No normal human could have possibly noticed, and she knew that was his point.

"I'm here, Iggy," Nudge whispered back. "Gazzy and Total too." As if on command, Gazzy moaned in his trance.

"The School." Iggy said to himself, disbelieving, in a flat, lifeless tone as he struggled silently against his restraints. She knew he felt awful about letting them get captured, but they never stood a chance against Omega. Nudge tried to think of a way to console him, but she couldn't think of anything. They were trapped.

"Someone's coming," he said. She listened hard for a second, and then heard the distant footsteps, accompanied by the whirr that the flyboys made as the hovered in the air. The steps grew louder until they stopped right outside the door, then a beep and a click as the white coat scanned his access card and the door unlocked. Two burley white coats, accompanied by half a dozen flyboys entered the room, moving silently toward Nudge's table. The white coats released her Velcro bindings, and immediately she tried to punch the nearest one in the face. He caught her fist.

"Looks like Jeb was right about these ones," he said, restraining her arms and escorting her to the door. "The extra security was a good idea."

"Iggy!" Nudge called out frantically, thrashing against her guards.

"It's ok, Nudge," Iggy called out, trying and failing to be reassuring. She could hear the panic in his voice, and she kept calling out for him and the flock, even as she was thrown unceremoniously into a tiny dog crate. Then she broke down crying. She was angry at Jeb, angry at Omega, angry at the WORLD for being so cruel. For the first time in a long time, Nudge thought that they really, truly, wouldn't be ok.

----x----

That was the last she had seen of any of the flock. Through various overheard conversations, she found out that they had been here for almost two weeks now and were purposefully being kept apart. She found out that Max and Fang had been captured too. And then she found out they were the last experiments left. The last human ones, anyway. Instead of testing her physically, the white coats seemed to have decided that Nudge was their new drug dummy. They poked and prodded her with needles all day and pumped her full of chemicals. Sometimes, they'd even operate on her.

There was only one thing that kept her sane through these tests. She had a plan. Unlike usual, she wasn't going to wait around for Max or Fang to come to rescue her. She was tired of relying on them, and she knew they couldn't always be the strong ones. After all, they'd been captured too. Nudge studied her surroundings, her captors, her guards, learning their patterns, and looking for a flaw in their system that she could exploit. She never found one. But after five days of looking, an opportunity was practically handed to her.

Each morning, Nudge was escorted to her daily tests by three white coats or flyboys or a mix of both. They'd experiment on her all day, and then the same three guards would escort her back to her crate. Normally, she was so exhausted that they practically had to drag her. But not that day. She had spent most of the day strapped to the table, waiting for the drugs to take effect. Strangely, the drug hadn't affected her at all. Jeb, who had been overseeing her testing that day got a call on his cell. He said that there was a "situation" he had to take care of and locked her into the room, saying that her entourage of guards would be there soon to take her back to her crate. But there was no entourage.

From what Nudge gathered from the single white coat's throaty voice, the "situation" had gotten so out of control that he was the only one they could spare, and he'd be the only one to escort her today. He held out his arms, ready to drag Nudge to her crate, but she just glared at him. She knew this was her one opportunity, and she knew she couldn't blow it. Adrenaline pumped through her, and she felt stronger then she had in days.

"Come along now, don't make a fuss," he said sternly. So Nudge kicked him in the stomach. She felt a rib give way as he fell to the floor, his mouth open and gasping silently like a fish out of water. If only she had her full strength, she was sure more then one bone would have been broken. She pounced on him as he was reaching for his walkie-talkie and snatched it out of his hands. Nudge threw it hard against the wall and heard it break satisfyingly.

"You know," Nudge said, aiming for arrogant but sounding more hoarse. "Kids don't belong in cages." And she drew back her fist and punched him in the face. She saw his eyes roll back, and then watched him slouch against the wall, unconscious. Checking to make sure the blinds on the window were shut, Nudge seized him under his arms and dragged him across the room. Using all her strength, she lifted him onto the table she had been on and strapped his arms and legs down. Then she removed his shoes and peeled of his slightly sweaty socks, and holding them at an arm's length away, she shoved them in his mouth. Hopefully, that would be sufficient to muffle his voice, should he wake up.

She grabbed his identification card and made sure her shoes were tied tight. Then she listened hard, and making sure that she heard nothing but sweet silence, she scanned the card and listened to the satisfying click as the door unlocked. Smiling for the first time since she arrived at the school, she quietly opened the door and slunk into the hallway. On the back of the door to the torture chamber she had just exited was a clipboard, which she knew would have a detailed description of her and the experiments that had been conducted on her the last few days.

On a whim, she grabbed the clip board. If she managed to escape, it might be nice to have a heads up before she spontaneously mutated because of all the chemicals inside her body. She flipped through the pages of her file as she crept down the hallway, looking for information that might tell her where the rest of the flock was. She still had no idea how she would locate the rest of the flock and escape the school. That part of her plan was still a work in progress. At the moment, she was just hoping not to get caught.

On the far side of the hallway, Nudge noticed a closet, and she darted inside. She needed time to think. Nudge pushed a mop out of the way and sat on an upside down bucket. Squinting in the dim light, she scanned the pages of the file. There were pages and pages of data about her and about the experiments that had been done on her. There was a map, with her holding room and the room she just left highlighted. There was a list of guards that were supposed to pick her up. And amazingly, there was a schedule of everything that was happening in the School that day. In tiny cell blocks were spelled out in black and white exactly the data she had been looking for.

Her own agenda was highlighted, but she paid that no mind. She was more interested in the rest of the School's schedule. She skipped over the boring things, detailing a meeting in room 158 A and Flyboy testing in hanger B, until she saw some data she recognized. Experiment 5G was currently in room 218, which was just across the hallway from Nudge's hiding place. 5G was Gazzy's number.

----x----

Please read and review. Sorry this chapter isn't as good as it should be, but no one beta'd it for me.

~Sari


	18. Max

_I have to say, guys, you really hurt my feelings on that last chapter. TWO reviews? That isn't a lot. Almost broke my little heart. Oh, well, I am already in so deep I shall finish this, even if no one is reading. The satisfaction of a completed project will be enough. Though a few reviews may inspire me a little more._

----x----

Everything hurt. Every bone, every muscle, every part of my being. That's the only way I can describe it. The white coats locked me in a lab, isolated, alone, not knowing about my flock, and I waited there. And waited. And waited. It seemed like forever, but the clock on the wall said it had only been two hours, twenty-one minutes, fifty-four seconds. Not like I was counting. I admit, not proudly, that I broke down and cried the whole time, wailing for my flock. I sat on the tile floor, rocking back and forward, hugging my knees to my chest. I hated being alone.

When things were normal, Gazzy and Iggy would always be making plans, or making bombs. Fang would be watching the flock, watching me, observing, making sure everyone was safe. Nudge would always be chattering away, even if no one was listening, just so we always knew everything, even if we didn't want to. Total would always be complaining about this or that and Angel… I stifled and extra sob… Would be reading my thoughts, assuring me when I felt like I couldn't go on, and ultimately taking on tasks that no six year old, genetically altered or not, should attempt. I guess I could say my hatred for silence was more than hate. It was also fear. Because when I couldn't hear Nudge chattering, Total complaining, Iggy and Gazzy making plans and blowing things up, Angel in my mind, and Fang guarding all of us, then something was always wrong.

Those first hours were the hardest. When they finally came for me, they were brutal. I knew they would be cruel, like always, pushing me and pulling me down the hall by my injured arm. But still it surprised me that humans, even ones as terrible as these, could do this to another human and still be okay with themselves.

"You don't want to do this," I snarled to the security guard gripping my upper arm. He didn't slow or even look down at me, just kept walking like I was an inanimate object. I screamed at him, shouting threats and letting out a stream of profanities, all the way to the basement, when they threw me into a different lab. Even though my face was covered in blood from the gash, my arm swelling up in blue and purple, my eyes red and puffy from crying, and my throat raspy, I still expected my threats to have some kind of effect.

The white coat following me and my escort was young, hardly three years my senior, but he didn't even flinch or look at me pitifully as he jammed a needle into my arm and injected a clear liquid into me. I struggled, kicking and fighting as always, but the three guards held me tight until the last drop was in my arm.

"I'll kill you," I snarled, suddenly feeling tired as the drug washed over me. I was starting to grow limp in the guard's arms, and they kept me upright. He scanned his card, and the floor started to tilt sideways and everything started to go fuzzy. I think I saw a flicker of a resentful smile on the white coat's face as they threw me into the lab and slammed the door behind me. I was knocked out before my head hit the floor.

----x----

Shortly after I woke, my testing began. First, they ran me for two days straight, and then as I was about to fall asleep on my feet, they shoved needles into my arms and a strange reddish orange liquid drug was pumped into me so they could study my digestive system. They made me fly into a wind tunnel with hurricane speed airstream. Swim impossible distances. Fight a hundred Flyboys until I crumpled. Day after day after day.

Each night, when I was escorted back to my dog crate, never by less then six guards, I always fought, but was always so exhausted that I never won. When I was finally shoved into my crate and collapsed on the hard ground, I curled up into a tight ball and was out like a baby until they woke me. I know I should have been more concerned with escape, but I was so tired. Even though I was exhausted, often passing out during the tests, I knew I could take any abuse to my body that they could throw at me. What I absolutely, positively, could not handle was the emotional pain.

I didn't know where the flock was or if they were ok or even if they were alive. All of my thoughts were of them, hoping they weren't doing as bad as I was. Through each of my tests, I pushed myself, sprinting at full speed, flying on hyper drive, putting my full effort into everything I did. This wasn't to please the white coats. I was punishing myself for letting them get captured. For Angel's death. It was all my fault. I was responsible. Me. And I felt that by making myself suffer, I'd feel better. It never worked. I just felt more awful, knowing that they were probably going through the same tests. Not just me, but Iggy and Gazzy and Nudge. Maybe even Total. And… Fang.

_Fang_. I missed him so much. I needed him like a drug. He was the one that kept me strong, kept me together. And now that he wasn't there, I felt myself falling apart. It was odd that not long ago when he had kissed me in Angel's room, I ran away. It was strange how in that short amount of time he had gone from a distant hope to all I could think about. Him and the others, anyway. The idea of a possible relationship was a distant thought before then, tucked far away. When he kissed me I finally knew he felt the same way. But now, I was alone.

Locked in yet another lab, strapped down to a metal table by rough Velcro straps, with two guards watching me pull halfheartedly against the bonds that held me down. I heard heavy footsteps and a click as the door was unlocked. A hand pushed it open and a white coat entered, and the strong smell of antiseptics reached my nose. Weren't they tired of testing on me? Hadn't they had enough? He pulled a wheeled cart behind him, and when I saw it, I started to cry.

Shiny, silver, evil surgical tools were lined up on the table in a neat row. I hated being operated on. I'm sure everyone hates surgeries, but for the School, it meant something else. In normal hospitals, normal patients had normal doctors and nurses come in and explain the surgery step by step and tell you the aftereffects excreta. At the School, crazy, evil, lunatic scientists operate on mutants (like yours truly), and don't explain the surgery at all. They don't tell you what they are doing to you or how it will affect you. They leave that to you to figure out.

The white coat was my favorite person in the world. Jeb (note the sarcasm).

"Hello, sweetie," he said, smiling like we were back in the E shaped house and everything was fine and dandy. It wasn't.

"Go to hell," I snapped at him, attempting to lunge at him, but again the straps held me down. I hated how my voice sounded, rusty and dry. I hated how my lunge was so weak the straps didn't even strain. That's what happens after two weeks of very little food and water. His smile was gone, replaced by a judgmental frown. He reached behind me and pulled a face mask over me and onto my mouth. I tried not to breath in the anesthesia but couldn't fight it, and soon, my eyes drooped, and I fell into a medically induced sleep.

----x----

While I was out, I dreamed. I saw memories, flashbacks of when we were happy. Angel sat there, in her pink sweater, holding Celeste to her chest. Total was asleep in her lap, and she was curled up in a large, comfortable looking chair. Fang sat on the arm rest, his arm stretching over the back of the chair, protecting her. Nudge and Gazzy were playing cards on the couch, arguing over the official rules of Go Fish. Just beyond them, Iggy was in the kitchen, looking happy as he stirred eggs in a large bowl. It looked like the perfect picture of a happy family. Only one thing was missing: me. Then I heard laughter, evil sounding laughter. It sounded like it was mocking, shaming the flock for their moment of peace. Then everything went up in flames. I screamed, out in warning, but they didn't hear me. Then it was over.

----x----

I woke lying on a table. Strapped down to the table, actually. I was in one of the surgery labs, with all the sanitary-ness and surgical things around me. As the raw anesthesia wore off and the dopy feeling along with it, I became more and more aware of the pain in my body. My wings were sore, pressed beneath me, and stiff from lack of exercise. The rest of my body, as usual, felt exhausted, drained, and all together empty.

I groaned, wondering what else they could have possibly done to me. I wouldn't be surprised if I woke up to find new chips in my arms that could control my body or some kind of virus that can kill every human in the world implanted into my blood. It wouldn't be too strange for the white coats. What they did was worse.

On a table to my right were the sharp tools I had seen before. On a table to my left were feathers. MY feathers, lined up neatly in a row, and slightly bloody. Me, being smarter then the average bear, quickly put two and two together.

Flight feathers are very important to any bird, except for chickens, penguins, and other birds who don't fly. They are also a necessity for every 98% human and 2% avians out there who constantly have to fly away from dangerous murders in disguise as scientists. Flight feathers, in case you couldn't conclude this by yourself, are important for flying. If you own a bird, a real, full bird (as in not a mutant like myself), then you probably know all about them because you have to take your bird to the vet once a year in order to have your poor little bird's flight feathers cut off so that your bird can't fly away from home. Here's a tip: your bird likes to fly. It doesn't want its feathers pulled out.

Yes, you guessed it. The white coats cut off my flight feathers. Yes, we have advanced healing, but feathers don't just grow overnight. When the white coats cut off my flight feathers, they took away me ability to fly. Sure, I'd be able to fly a dinky few yards, but that is it. They took my freedom from me, and I am sure that they didn't care. They probably didn't even notice that they were taking away my last hope. Before, I had always been able to fly away from situations that became sticky. Now if I escaped, how could I _escape _escape? I might get out of my cell, but good luck getting over the ten feet high electric fences.

----x----

_Well, that is that. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope I get more love this time. Next chapter will be soon, I promise! It is 4:57 AM and I am starting on the next one RIGHT NOW! So you guys should love me for giving up my beauty sleep to type out these chapters! Haha, just kidding. Does anyone even read these author notes? I'll stop now._

_~Sari_


	19. Fight or Flight

_Alright then, here's the new chapter. It doesn't have as much magic as they usually do, but it's supposed to be Max's raw emotion and anger, which means it doesn't flow as nicely as a magical chapter does. It is supposed to be rougher, more c h o p p y. Anyway I hope you like it. Merry xmas, if I don't post again before then._

----x----

The anger hit me instead of tears. I let out a roar of mutiny and tugged hard against my Velcro restraints. _Try to break me, will you?_ I thought fumingly to myself. Allowing my rage to devour all my thoughts, I thrashed against my bonds, kicking and pulling and bucking with all my strength. My wings. My _wings_. That was inexcusable! The point of redemption was long ago, and now I had cracked.

I screamed out all my fury and jerked my wrists up. Nothing. I shrieked and tugged as hard as I could up, keeping the pressure there until my arms began to tremble with the effort. Maybe it was the weeks and weeks of struggling, or maybe it was that one liberated blast of wrath, but the right Velcro strap snapped. The end shot up and smacked me in the face, but I barley noticed it. I knew my outburst had not gone undiscovered, and sure enough, I heard footsteps running in the hall. I had maybe ten seconds.

I wasted no time in unbuckling my left wrist and my ankles. As I shot up from the table, the lab opened and admitted three white coats, all with guns set with tranquilizers. I threw myself on the nearest one and took no time in disabling him. Break the gun with a quick kick, sending it flying into the wall; break his nose with a punch. I didn't even think, just let my emotion take over. All those weeks of torture, all those months of being on the run, all those years of living in a cage, and all the anger was coming out now, directed at these white coats. Adrenaline, sweet adrenaline. It powered me with a strength I didn't know I still had. An alarm sounded in the distance. _They know_, I thought. But that isn't _going to stop me now._

I slammed into the next white coat with my shoulder, sending him flying back into the third white coat, just as the third fired his tranq gun. The dart hit the second white coat's neck, and he slumped immediately to the floor. Remind me to laugh later. The last white coat took aim again, and just as he pulled the trigger I dropped to the floor and rolled out of the way. The dart shot harmlessly over me. I was too quick. I was too quick for all of them. Keeping my now useless wings tucked tightly in, I launched myself off of the floor, using my momentum to slam the unusually large white coat a nasty punch to the face. He recovered quickly, but I jumped on the gun held in his right hand while he was reeling from the punch and attempted to wrestle it out of his massive grip.

He grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and threw me back to the floor and again aimed at me. Thinking quickly, I kicked him where the sun don't shine, and he sucked in a deep breath of air and doubled over. I seized the tranquillizer from him and turned the weapon on the user. I shot a dart into his shoulder and he, too, slunk to the floor. At least he wouldn't feel the pain anymore. I darted into the hallway. Looking frantically about, I saw Flyboys to my right, white coat guards to my left. Above me, the siren still sounded.

I turned and raced towards the Flyboys. As soon as I got within three meters, the several or so Flyboys started shooting tranq darts everywhere, trying to hit me. I dodged the best I could, but one brushed my shoulder. Not deep enough to knock me out, but deep enough to sting badly. And draw blood. I screamed and kicked madly at the fist Flyboy to dare get close to me. He swung his iron fist, his voice droning on in its usual way.

"You cannot escape. Give up. You cannot escape." They all whirred mindlessly.

"Watch me!" I screamed back in their faces. I ducked, avoiding his punch, and ran behind him, punching the spine, where I knew they were weak. As usual, he snapped in half, leaving wires and metal in a heap on the floor. I jumped over it and ran to the next Flyboy, who was making a swipe at me. I dodged, but he clubbed me in the arm that had been hit by the tranq. Lucky for me, that arm had gone numb, thanks to the neutralizers in the dart. I didn't even feel his fist, but instead used the momentum to smash my own punch into his iron face. He flew back into a different Flyboy, and they both exploded into a smoking pile. I paid them no mind. Racing down the hallway, I slammed two more Flyboys into the wall and sprinted around a corner. The remaining Flyboys followed, only to be met by punches to the face, one after the other after the other. All in a matter of seconds.

I knew the white coats and guards that I had seen to my left would be sprinting down the hallway after me. I could hear them yelling at me and their shoes pounding the floor. If I had been paying more attention, I would have noticed how the fire from the Flyboys was seeping up the walls, catching the blinds to a lab on fire, then crawling under the door into a lab, and mixing with some unstable chemicals. If I were listening, I would have heard a boom as the chemicals overheated and reacted, causing the fire to spread, filling the whole room and blocking the hallway.

No one was perusing me from that way. They were all running, knowing that the chemicals would soon all be afire, and the fumes from the chemicals, also, would burn, and spread through the whole building. I didn't know that. I was consumed by my anger, and heard nothing but my own thoughts and instincts. I just ran. I pulled open the doors to the stairs and pounded up them at top speed. If I didn't know better, I would have thought I was flying.

"Think Max, think!" I yelled at myself as I dashed into a hallway on the first floor. I was out of the basement, which held most of the surgical labs. Four floors, three buildings, almost six hundred rooms where they could be holding the flock. How could I find them? How could I get out of here if I couldn't fly?

----x----

Fang heard the siren overhead. He hoped it was Max that was giving them problems. _Give them hell for me,_ he thought fiercely. _But not too much,_ he thought half a beat later. He didn't want her to be punished. If it even was her.

----x----

_I really worked hard on the fight scenes, trying to keep Max in character, and I hope I did a good job of it. I hope you are in the holiday spirit and leave me lots of comments._

_~Sari_


	20. Burn, Baby

_Bum bum bum…._

----x----

Fang was on a lab on the first floor, licking his wounds from his fights with Omega. Fang knew that the sirens overhead signaled an escaped experiment. He hoped that Max or one of the others was the cause. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, trying to relax. Was that…. Smoke he smelled? Yes, Fang was sure it was. He heard the pounding of feet in the hallway mixing with the wailing alarm. He decided to ignore the siren. It wasn't an escapee. He gave up hope of escape or rescue, yet again. The siren signaled a fire. And since no one had come to let him out of his cage yet, he prepared to burn.

----x----

Most of the holding labs- aka rooms filled with dog crates of innocent kids turned mutants- were on the first floor, so I powered up the flights of stairs and burst out the door to the second floor. The second floor was where most of the experiment labs were. If any of the kids were being experimented on, hopefully they would hear me yelling for them, and they would get out, or at least let me know where they were with their voices. I opened my mouth and started screaming.

"Bandada Bezheet! See- Chass!" I yelled. Or that's what I meant to yell. I ran into two white coats heading for the stair well I had just exited. On "Bez" I grabbed the first one to reach me and twisted his arm tightly behind his back. On "heet" I kicked him in the back and sent him sprawling onto the floor. On "See" I grabbed the second white coat and kneed him in the gut, then grabbed his face and slammed it into the wall, and on "Chass" I threw him on the first white coat, and they both lay on the floor, unmoving. Hands I hadn't seen grabbed me from behind and pulled me backward, into a room. I started to shake myself free, until I heard a relieving and familiar voice say my name.

"Max!" Nudge cried, sounding relieved.

"Max," Gazzy echoed. I found myself in a closet, the three of us crammed together, but I didn't care. I felt my eyes well up as I took in the sight of them. I could tell from the quick glances at them that Gazzy had been a torture, and Nudge was an operation dummy. I had been both.

Gazzy's eyes were bloodshot and hallow, a result from little sleep in the last few weeks, but that wasn't the most terrifying thing about them. They were dead, like all the happiness and hope in the world had been sucked from him. His wings, I was glad to see, were still completely intact, as were Nudge's. Unlike mine. His left eye was nearly swollen shut, and he had bruises in the shape of handprints all up and down his arms. He had grown thinner and his face had lost some of its child roundness. I wanted to take him to Burger King, his favorite restaurant, and buy him all the whoppers and crown shaped chicken nuggets he wanted. Or Macdonald's, or anywhere really. But I knew he liked Burger King for the free crowns.

Nudge looked mostly the same as the Gasman, but she had needle holes on her arms and incisions from surgeries. Her hair looked even more wild then normal, and she stood more slouched, as if she were too tired to even hold herself up. Choking back a sob, Nudge threw herself at me, and Gazzy did the same. I wrapped my arms around them and held them close, for only a second. That was all the time we had. Nudge pulled back, surprised, her eyes trained on my wings.

"Max, what happened to your wings?" She asked, sounding panicked. Apparently she had noticed that they had a few less feathers then usual. I ignored her.

"We need to find Iggy and Fang," I told them. Nudge nodded and picked up a clipboard from the floor.

"We figured that out already, Max," she said, flipping through the pages.

"Nudge escaped, and grabbed the clipboard, which told her where everyone in the School was, which is how she found me," Gazzy explained quickly.

"Iggy's two doors down, other side of the hallway," Nudge reported, ripping the page off and shoving it into the pocket of her filthy jeans. Suddenly, I heard footsteps and a yelling a voice, and the door to the closet flew open. Two white coats, three Flyboys, all with tasers. I shoved Nudge and Gazzy quickly behind me and waited for them to make their move. The Flyboy nearest me raised his taser, ready to jab it into my side. Lightning fast, I grabbed a hold of its metal arm and twisted it. It fell off. I kicked him, and he flew back into one of the white coats and another Flyboy, and the three of them flew back into the wall.

"Aaron!" The still standing white coat called to the one buried beneath two Flyboys. He ran to help him, but as he reached for Aaron's upraised hand, I kicked the last Flyboy as hard as I could in the stomach, and he flew back, slamming the white coat in the wall until he was lying just as helplessly as his friend.

"Max is pissed," Gazzy stated, which was true, but what made me happier then anything was that his voice sounded hopeful. They all knew how dangerous I could be when I was angry.

"Let's go!" I called. We ran down the foyer, heading two doors down, other side of the hallway. I could hear Nudge and Gazzy behind me, and the alarm was still screaming above us. As I reached the door, I noticed that I needed a key card to open it. "Iggy!" I screamed, slamming my fists on the door.

"Max!" He called, his voice slightly strangled with surprise and muffled from the heavy door. I heard him struggling against his bonds. Nudge, breathing heavily, finally caught up to me and ran a key card through the scanner. I didn't have time to ask her how she got that. As soon as I heard the click of the door unlocking, I threw it open and stormed in. Iggy's sightless eyes were trained towards the door that I had just entered, and he was yanking fiercely against his bonds.

There was one surprised looking white coat in the room with him, and she was reaching towards the walkie-talkie on her waistband. I scanned the desk next to me quickly, and yanked the phone out of the wall, hurtled it at the white coat, and it knocked the walkie-talkie out of her hand, sending them both to the floor where they shattered. The white coat stared at her hand, and then at me, seething, and preparing to charge at her. She closed her eyes and fainted, landing in a not so graceful heap on the floor. Nudge, Gazzy, and I ran to Iggy. I yanked the Velcro strap restraining his right arm, and as soon as it was free he reached to release his left arm, while Nudge and Gazzy worked the Velcro on his feet.

"Bout time," Iggy rasped, smiling a huge smile at me.

"Well, you know, I was a bit busy," I replied, helping him sit up.

"Look out!" Nudge shrieked, and my eyes shot up. The lady white coat, stupid sly fox, had taken a syringe out of her lab coat pocket and was about to stab it into Gazzy's right ankle, who was unbuckling Iggy's right foot.

"Gazzy!" I called, a second too late. She plunged it into Gazzy's ankle and injected the fluid into his body. I sprinted around the table and caught Gazzy before he hit the ground, then I passed him quickly off to Iggy. Whoever invented sedation drugs was insane. The lady white coat stood up and backed away until she was against the opposite wall, was smiling wickedly at me. "Nice fake faint. You should have been an actress. Then you wouldn't have to deal with job hazards like me and my fists, with whom you are about to become aquatinted." I snarled.

"Iggy!" I called to him. "Follow Nudge! Go!" Nudge ran for the door, Iggy following and holding Gazzy. I turned and kicked the lady white coat hard in the stomach the turned to follow. When I got into the hallway, I noticed that Nudge and Iggy were flushed and breathing heavily. They were exhausted from this little bit of action. I realized, though, that I was too.

"Fang is in a crate on the first floor. Lab 198," Nudge informed me. "Total is right next door, in 197."

"Is that smoke?" Iggy said.

"Let's go, before we run into anyone," I said, and we ran for the stairs. As we descended, we saw no one, but the smoke began to become thicker. By the time we got to the first floor, we were doubled over, trying to inhale as little smoke as possible. Nudge had her hand over her mouth, trying to avoid taking in any smoke, and I mimicked her.

"The white coats have all evacuated!" Iggy called.

"We're not leaving Fang!" Nudge and I both cried at the same time, even though we knew that wasn't what Iggy meant.

"Flames!" Nudge said, pointing behind us. Through the dense black swirling around us, I could see that the fire was starting to spread into the hallway, seemingly chasing us. Our eyes watered, making it hard to see, and I had to squint to see the numbers on the doors. 201, 200, 199, 198!

"I'll get Fang, you guys get Total! If I'm not there in two minutes, head for the hawk cave!" I yelled in Nudge's ear, giving her and Iggy a slight push down the hall. We had hidden out in a hawk cave nearby when we rescued Angel from this very school. So long ago… I turned the handle of the door. _Shit,_ I thought. Nudge had the key card, and she had already disappeared into the smoke. How would I get in? I grabbed the clipboard off the back of the door. None of us were big prayers, but I found myself praying. _God, Buddha, Gandhi, someone, _I thought_, please, please let there be a key card attached to this clipboard. _Something small fell into my hand. _Yes!_

The smoke was so thick I couldn't see, couldn't breathe. My eyes were streaming. The fire was so close now I could feel the heat of it. I scanned the card and practically collapsed into the lab, gasping for air. I felt light headed and weak and exhausted. I coughed so hard I thought I would cough out a lung.

"Max," Fang breathed, and that single word made me stop breathing again. My eyes flew to him, and at first I was in shock. His face was gaunt and ashy, more so then the others. He was covered in cuts and bruises and gashes. He didn't just look hungry, he looked starving. But he was still my Fang. And I was so glad to see him.

I ran over to his crate and unlocked it quickly as I could. He was out of the cage in a flash, arm around me, hugging me tight to him. I hugged him back, just as tightly. There was so much unsaid in that hug. It said, "I'm sorry" and "I missed you" and "I'm glad you're ok" and maybe something more. When he held me like this, strong and urgent, I felt safe, as if everything were alright. I felt like home. I wanted to stay this way forever.

"We need to go," Fang said, letting me go first. Reality came back then. I remembered the others, alone, getting Total. I remembered the fire and the stifling smoke. I remembered how the building was collapsing all around us. I nodded and we ran together to the door. As soon as it opened, we were met with smoke so thick we knew the fire was very, very close. Fang grabbed my hand and we went, bent over double, hands over our mouths, running towards the rest of our flock. We got to lab 197, knocked on the door once, and it opened immediately. Nudge hugged Fang once, quickly, and Iggy nodded in his direction. Fang ruffled the sedated Gazzy's hair.

"Max! Fang! Oh, I am SO glad to see you!" Total sobbed from Nudge's arm, as we ran down the hallway, away from the flames. "It was terrible! They only fed me dog food, and they cut my hair way to short, and they made me run as if I were and animal!" He licked my cheek. "God, you taste like burnt steak! But I missed you anyway!" How he could say all this, I didn't know, because every time I opened my mouth the air was so dry I couldn't breathe.

Left, right, left again, we ran through the school, dodging flames and looking for an exit. We tried them all, and they were all blocked by fiery walls. There was no hope. There was no escape. Or so I thought.

"I remember one more exit! I think it's this way!" Nudge coughed. We followed her, right, right, left, right, left, and sure enough, in the distance, a door with a big flashing EXIT sign above it. Total sighed in relief. I didn't. Coming from another way were roaring flames, heading towards the last exit. Our last hope.

"Run!" I screamed, pushing the flock in front of me. This was our last chance. We had to make it. We HAD to.

_Max,_ I heard the voice say inside my mind. STUPID Jeb, popping up now, of all times.

_If we die, I'll kill you, _I thought back._ I will personally make your life a living hell-_

"Max stop," said Jeb again, this time not in my head. I frozen in my tracks, and the flock froze with me. I turned slowly, and I could barley see him and Omega.

"Go," I commanded the flock. "I need to do this. Go." They stood motionless beside me, as I squared off. This was not the time for their defiance. "_Now,_" I snarled.

"You heard her," Fang said, squaring off to fight next to me. "Go. We'll handle this and meet up with you."

"You know where to meet," I said as they took off running. My eyes locked with Jeb's, but I heard the click and the slam as the flock made it out the door and into the fresh, clean air.

"Look out!" Fang yelled, pulling me forward as a flaming ceiling tile fell right where I was just standing. The exit was engulfed in flames.

Behind us, the last exit in the whole building was blocked off by flames. In front of us, Jeb and Omega, preparing for a battle, and the air was so thick we couldn't breathe, and it was so scorching hot that we were soaked in sweat, and the whole building was falling down all around us. And there was only one word on my mind. _Crap._

----x----

_This chapter was surprisingly hard to write. Battle scenes are difficult because I want you guys to see it exactly as I do in my head, and that's kind of hard to do. Its also hard to keep writing when my amount of readers has deteriorated from upwards of 1,000 to about 40 a chapter. Oh well, I will finish this thing I started! I still like it! Let's go for 100 reviews, people!_

_~Sari_


	21. Thoughts

_So, I know you people don't want excuses, but I'm going to give them to you anyway. I know it has been forever since I've written, and there is no way that it should have taken me this long to write this. Long story short, I moved out of my parent's house and in with a friend because of some family issues, was really depressed, and didn't feel like writing. Now, however, I am back at home, and here I am! If you think about it, though, sometimes anticipation makes it way better when you actually read it. I apologize for my ghastly behavior and beg forgiveness. You can show you forgive me with nice, long, reviews! Just kidding. Or am I??? On the bright side, Maximum Ride 5 is on shelves in one hour, thirty two minutes (from when I'm typing this, anyway, but by the time this is online it will probably be out). If you think about it, though, sometimes anticipation makes it way better when you actually read it. Without further ado, here is the next part of Empty Spaces._

----x----

My eyes shifted to Fang. His wings, spread out behind him, were brittle from the time spent in cages. His shirt, like mine, was soaked with sweat and sticking unpleasantly to his back. His eyes scanned all around us, looking for any possible escape. Fang hadn't given up yet. I had.

My eyes closed. Deep inside me, I knew this was the end. The fire raged all around us, and I could smell the chemicals burning and could hear an explosion as a reaction took place. I always knew it would end this way, just me and my fists against someone else's. I hadn't factored Fang into the equation, though. He didn't deserve to die. He could still make it out. He could fly. The supposed great, enviable power. All those bloggers, wishing they had wings so they could join us. Never mind the constant hiding, fighting for your life, and not being able to trust anyone. As long as they were part of the flock, they would take what was handed to them.

What the bloggers didn't know was that as much as the wings were a gift, they were also a curse. We were cursed to a life of fear. But yet, I knew if given the choice, I would choose this life all over again. If my DNA hadn't been altered, I'd be a normal kid, living in Arizona with my mom, Dr. Martinez, and my half sister, Ella. I would have gone to a normal school every day, would have had friends, played sports, maybe even had a boyfriend. But if that were my life, I wouldn't know the beauty of flying. The freeness of it, the uncontrolled grace we had in the sky. I wouldn't know what it was like to trust five people (six, if you counted Total) with your life, and not trust anyone else, wouldn't know about the horrible people that turned kids into monsters, wouldn't know that evil corporations were trying to gain power over the entire world, wouldn't know anything except the stuff you learn in school, which to be honest, really isn't enough to get you through life.

Most importantly, I wouldn't know how deep feelings can go for a person, your best friend, wing man, guy who you had kissed, who you loved but couldn't be with. I wouldn't have had to trust anyone with everything, with all of me, the way I trusted Fang. We were special. We would never be normal. I wouldn't have it any other way.

"You fly at him from the right," Fang muttered to me from the corner of his mouth, "and I'll take the left. If we can blow past Omega and pick up enough speed, we might be able to create enough wind to blow the flames away for just long enough to get through. On the count of three." My eyes snapped open, and I snapped back into reality. Only a second had passed, maybe two. The heat was hotter than before, if that were possible. I felt like I was being roasted alive. My eyes were watering from the smoke, and my throat felt like I had swallowed a bag of sand. It was like being in the desert. If the desert was going to burn you to death, that is. Perhaps hell was a more apt analogy.

"You have no hope of escape. Surrender now and your lives will be spared," Omega said, stepping towards us again. Unless he had a massive fire extinguisher hidden behind his back, we were shit out of luck anyway. If I launched my doomed self at Omega, I might be able to distract him long enough for Fang to get out.

_You know what you have to do, _the voice said. _You can finally save the world. Destroy Omega._ I had never intentionally killed anyone. I knew Omega had thoughts and feelings. I knew he was alive. Yes, he was a heartless, cold, ruthless being, but it wasn't his fault. It was Jeb's, and it was the School, who created him. He was a victim of genetic experiments, just like us. That was what made up my mind. Just like when I fought Max II, the clone created to replace me, I would refuse to do what was expected of me. I wouldn't spend the last few minutes of my life murdering someone else. I couldn't.

Very suddenly, I was filled with a passion to live that was so strong it almost knocked me off my feet. I was a fighter. I wouldn't give up. Gazzy needed me. Iggy, Total, Nudge, they all needed me. The odds weren't high, but screw the odds. I wouldn't accept death. Like I'd always said, I'd meet it kicking and fighting.

_Now would be an excellent time to develop the power to spray water out of my hands,_ I thought desperately. No response. The voice was probably pissed off that I wouldn't kill Omega.

"Three," Fang said, taking a fighting stance. Omega took one as well, stepping in front of Jeb.

"Uh, Fang?" I choked out. My voice sounded awful, like screechy bagpipes. I needed water, ASAP.

"Two," Fang continued, his focus so strong that he didn't hear me.

"_Fang,_" I breathed, grabbing onto his arm.

"What?" he said, finally looking at me.

"I can't fly."

----x----

_Yeah, I'm out of practice. Yeah, I know this chapter was terrible. But let's look at the glass half full. I've already written the epilogue, and it is spectacular :) . (So I don't do things in order. That's how I rock). Reviews are much appreciated. _

_So, diving into my view on this chapter. I know Max's thoughts are all over the place, from thinking the wings are a blessing and a curse, to deciding that this was still the life she would have chosen, despite everything bad that has happened, to being ready to die, to deciding to fight for life, to making the choice to not kill Omega. I know it was all over the place. That's why this chapter is called _Thoughts_. It's Max's thoughts on the situation. And since the whole chapter takes place in about ten seconds, the thoughts are supposed to be random, quick decisions. I think Max is like that, anyway. Going with her gut. Next chapter is coming very soon, for real this time._

_~Sari_


	22. Death or Escape?

_So I actually had this finished a week ago, but then I went on spring break (to HAWAII) and I didn't have internet access, so this just sat on my laptop at home, waiting for me to return. On the bright side, I have the rest of the story finished, which I will post when I'm not feeling so lazy._

----x----

Fang looked from me, to Jeb, back to me, and his eyes darted to my back. Surly, he saw my wings still there, but his eyes filled with fury anyway. He knew what they did. His expression grew determined and his hands clenched into fists as he prepared to fight. I was ready. Through eyes watery from the smoke and intense heat, I saw Omega fall into a fighting stance too.

At the end of the hallway, through a haze of black smoke, I saw something I never would have guessed in a thousand years. Jeb had once been my father. He had taken care of all of us, but then he had left us alone to fend for ourselves. When we found out he was alive, it was a betrayal so thorough it still made me sick. So when I saw Jeb put his hand on Omega's shoulder, not in friendship, but to restrain him, I thought I was hallucinating. 'It must be the smoke getting to me,' I thought. But then Fang shot me a confused look and I knew it was real.

"Omega, no," Jeb said, calmly, considering we were about to be burned to death. For a moment, I thought Omega would attack anyway, for once in his life denying the orders of his master. But, with a growl at Fang and I, Omega returned to a normal stance.

"Huh?" I said softly. Wasn't Omega going to kill us? I probably would have preferred that to being burned to death. There was no escape from this inferno, we all saw that now. I had assumed that we would spend our last minutes on earth fighting. That was how I had always pictured my death.

"The vent to your left leads directly into my office," Jeb said. "In there is the only non chicken wired window in the whole building. I believe it may be your only chance to escape." Instantly, my eyes flew to the left, and there was a vent there. My mouth fell open in shock. Jeb was giving us a way out? Why? Why would he do that? After he left us to die in the E shaped house, after he tortured us at the school, after all he had put us through… I thought he wanted us dead.

"After all this, Max, can you believe that I really did only want what was best for you?" His voice was pleading and filled with remorse. I couldn't move. I couldn't feel. Jeb, who was the only father I knew…. My thoughts were still reeling. Jeb really thought this was what was best for us? I didn't know if I could believe that. But I wanted to. I really, really wanted to.

My eyes were streaming, and I wasn't sure if it was from his words or from the smoke, which was steadily growing thicker. I could barely see them at the end of the hallway. Suddenly, a door to a lab right in front of Jeb exploded, shooting off its frame and crashing into the hallway, bringing a new wave of smoke and fire. I couldn't see them after that.

Fang recovered faster than I did. He kicked the vent until it broke open, and seeing me frozen in shock, he grabbed my waist and practically shoved me into the air duct. Even with our wings tucked in tightly, we barley fit. I gasped. The intense heat inside small crawl space snapped me out of my shock. The warmth from the fire had heated the metal to a scorching degree that burned my hands.

"Go, Max!" Fang coughed. I went into survival mode again. Maybe there was a chance for us to live through this after all. We began to crawl through the metal inferno towards the turn I could see faintly ahead of us. We crawled, and rounded the corner. The crawlspace immediately began to curve upward, to Jeb's office on the second floor.

I coughed, trying to get the smoke from my lungs. It was so hard to breathe…. But I was so close… I could see the square of light that was a vent leading into the office. Breathing heavily, I punched the vent out of the way and tumbled out of the crawlspace onto a carpeted floor. Fang nearly fell on top of me in his haste to escape the air duct.

He got onto his knees and coughed. I just lay there, exhausted, unable to move. The air was cleaner here, though still tinged with smoke. On my back, I rolled my head to see the windows, which indeed did not have chicken wire. We could escape. But we had to move first, and I wasn't entirely sure I could stand. Fang, too, seemed too exhausted to move. I felt like I could cough up a lung, and my limbs wouldn't cooperate. I stared at the ceiling, breathing heavily. Was it just me, or did it seem lower than it should? And why was it so cracked? A defining crash sounded through the room as a ceiling tile fell to the floor. With the fallen tiles came flames, which quickly caught the rug and started to spread throughout the room, while more smoke continued to pour through the gap in the ceiling.

Fang and I half dragged each other around to the other side of Jeb's desk, away from the flames and closer to the window that was our only escape. Seeing Jeb's computer there, I let go of Fang, and leaning on the desk for support, I threw his laptop into the flames. I knew from my earlier experience in Jeb's office that Jeb insisted on keeping all of the information about the School's work on his computer. He said it was because he was the only one who could be trusted. By destroying it, I was saving the world my way. I didn't need to kill anyone, like the voice said. There would be no more experiments like me. No one else would live the life I lead. And for once, I felt like I had done something right.

"Max, we need to get out of here," Fang said. His eyes, triumphant, were on the burning laptop. He knew the significance of what I had just done. I nodded, and then looked out the window. We were two stories up, and I still couldn't fly.

"Just go," I said, seeing no other choice. I had saved the world. I had saved the flock, and I had saved the lives of kids who weren't even born yet from being turned into experiments like me. I could die in peace now. Fang looked down on me, shock crossing his face, and then he started to shake his head furiously.

"Don't be ridiculous," he said. Placing one arm behind my back, he swept me up like a parent carries a young child. I thudded against his chest. I suppose, thinking back on it, Fang holding me like that should have seemed romantic and intimate, but in that moment it wasn't at all. He was saving me, again. He bent down and quickly kissed me on the forehead, and my heart started racing again. "Do you really think I'd leave you?" Faintly, I wondered how he was strong enough to still carry me. I felt exhausted.

Snapping his wings out, he pushed off and we flew towards the window. I threw my arms up to protect our faces from the shattering glass as it broke against our weight. Simultaneously, we both breathed deeply, sucking in as much clean air as we could. We had made it out. I wrapped my arms around his neck and looked back. The whole School was on fire, and smoke was pouring out of all the windows and doors. Everywhere you looked, there was smoke and flames. I didn't see anyone outside, but that didn't mean they hadn't made it out…

Fang, struggling slightly from exhaustion, flew up and over the fence surrounding the school. In the distance I could hear fire trucks as they approached the wreckage that was the School. And then, I heard one of the voices I was most anxious to hear.

"Max! Fang!" Nudge cried, and I looked up to see her flying towards us. Gazzy was right on her heels, and Iggy, with Total in his arms, were right behind. They flew right up to us and we nearly collided in mid air. Seeing Fang's exhaustion and his struggle to stay in the air, Total spoke.

"Shall we land?" he said, and we did. In silence, except for Nudge babbling about how she was worried she wouldn't have seen us again, we flew. About two miles from the School, Iggy, in the lead, started circling over a lake we hadn't seen in awhile. Lake Mead, to be exact. Iggy swooped down and landed gracefully on the shore. I still had no idea how he did that. Looking around at the beautiful lake, I remembered the last time we had been here. None of us knew the exact amount of time it had been, but I would estimate that it was about three years since we rescued Angel from the school. _Angel… _An entirely different type of pain swept through me.

Following Iggy's example, the rest of the flock landed on the bank. As soon as we touched down, Fang steadied me on my feet but then pulled me into a tight hug. Instantly, all the pain, the physical pain, emotional pain, every type of pain seemed so much smaller. I wrapped my arms around his waist and leaned into him. We made it out. And everything would change now.

Nudge practically jumped on us, joining in our hug, and Gazzy and Iggy hugged us tight too. Total just lay on the sand and sobbed at our feet.

"We thought you were goners," Gazzy confessed when we were done hugging each other. I turned to Fang and saw his bruised and bloody face, blackened from the smoke. His hands were blistered from the burning metal in the air duct and he had glass in his hair. His clothes were singed and cut and bloodied. I think I looked the same.

"Long story," I said sinking to the ground, still coughing slightly from the smoke. The others, seeing mine and Fang's exhaustion, sat down too.

"But we've got time now," Fang said. "We've got forever to talk about it." And we did.

----x----

_For some reason, I really really like the ending to this chapter. It just seems so… Closing-ish. But fear not! This is not the last chapter. Anyway, I just liked how it seemed like everything was finally looking up. Now to a commentary on this chapter! (Note to you: If you think you understand what happened in this chapter, feel free to skip the next paragraph. If you are unsure, read on!_

_My friend read over this chapter and thought it was a bit confusing, so I thought I would commentate it a little bit for you. Basically, Fang and Max think Omega is going to kill them, but Jeb lets them escape instead because he really did love the flock. They crawl out of the fiery hallway through an air duct and end up in Jeb's office, which isn't on fire yet, but before they can catch their breath some flaming ceiling tiles fall from the ceiling and catch the office on fire. Max throws Jeb's laptop into the flames, which has all the data that the School has ever done on it, thus saving the world her way. Max thinks Fang will have to leave her in the office since she can't fly, but he picks her up and carries her as they fly out of the window to safety. As they are flying away, Max turns back to the flaming building, and she doesn't see Omega or Jeb, so she doesn't know if they escaped. Nudge and the rest of the flock, who are waiting in the skies outside the school, spot Max and Fang, and the reunited flock flies to Lake Mead (mentioned in the 1__st__ and maybe the 3__rd__ book), where they relax and start to talk about what has happened._

_Whew! Lengthy explanation, and also (I believe) the longest A.N. so far! Hope you liked the chapter, please R&R, etcetera, etcetera. _

_~Sari_


	23. What Happens Now?

_First of all, I would like to thank you, reader, for reading this so far. It has taken me literally F O R E V E R to write this, so it is nice that someone is actually reading it, and hopefully, enjoying it. I would like to apologize for the amount of time it has taken me between chapters, but I think you understand that I, too, have a life and homework and stuff that I need to do. This is the last chapter of Empty Spaces, not including the epilogue. I really hope that you enjoyed the journey as much as I have. Please review!_

----x----

We stayed there talking for at least three hours. Long enough that it was dark out and Gazzy fell asleep face first in the sand. Fang, now with some of his strength recovered, carried me, while Iggy carried Gazzy. Together we flew to the Hawk cave we had stayed in so long ago. Also, if my memory serves me right, the last time we were her was also when we rescued Angel. It was a tight squeeze with all of us in there, but we didn't mind. We were so glad to be reunited that we would have slept on top of each other if we had to.

----x----

The next morning, when I woke up, Nudge's foot was in my stomach, Iggy's wing was across my face, Fang's arm was around my waist, Total was sleeping on my right foot, and Gazzy's signature smell was throughout the room. Thankfully, he had slept on the other side of Fang, so the stench wasn't as bad for me. As quietly as I could, I extracted myself from the pile and walked out to the ledge of the Hawk cave. A nest was there, with three young birds just starting to chirp. I could see the sun rising beyond them, and the mother bird swooping over the lake in search of food.

I heard someone behind me stretch and get up from the pile to join me. Too loud to be Fang, footsteps too heavy to be Gazzy or Nudge. Iggy stood next to me, also surveying the view. Or, not. I always forget he's blind.

"Gasman must be pretty healthy to let one of those rip in the middle of the night, huh?" he said to me, dramatically plugging his nose. I chuckled.

"Yeah, they seem to have left the more serious experiments for us big kids." I said. We fell silent, each to our own thoughts. I don't know about Iggy, but I was thinking about Jeb.

Did he mean what he said? Was he really trying to do what was best for me? He did save mine and Fang's lives. But was it another plan to manipulate me? And did he and Omega escape the fire? I didn't see anyone, but that doesn't mean they didn't get out in time. I wrapped my arms around myself. These thoughts weren't helping anything. But I really wanted to know.

"Oh, by the way," Iggy said, interrupting my thoughts. He held up a tiny rectangular piece of plastic. My credit card, with its seemingly endless cash, courtesy of the School. "I swiped this when we were first taken. I figured it would be useful when we escaped. Which we did."

"How do you do that?" I said, sounding, even to myself, awed.

"It's a gift," he said. It made me shudder to think that a blind kid could steal things so expertly. Suddenly, the hairs on the back of my neck stood out and I tensed, ready to fight whoever or whatever it was. But then Fang's hand touched my waist gently, so I knew it was him. I let out the breath I had been holding. Ever since our escape I had been waiting for the Flyboys or Erasers or something to come after us, but so far, nothing. We weren't even four miles from the School and yet no one had come for us yet.

"Well, considering that we have pretty much whatever cash we need," Fang said. "Why don't we give ourselves a little comfort? Relaxation?"

"Hotel?" Nudge cried in delight from within the cave. I hadn't heard her wake.

"Sounds good to me," Gazzy agreed. I looked around at my flock, blood splattered, singed, burnt, dirty, and scarred. The grime didn't look like it could be washed out with lake water.

"It's a plan," I said, smiling at them. Nudge and Gazzy cheered, and I thought I heard Total crying a bit.

----x----

That is how, two days later, I ended up in the presidential suite of the nicest hotel in the state of Nevada. The nicest one not on the Vegas strip, anyway. I would have to have been heavily sedated to agree to going anywhere near that city. Why the presidential. Suite, you ask? One word: Iggy.

Iggy was much cleaner and more presentable then Fang and I were, and Nudge and Gazzy were too young to book a hotel room, so it was Iggy who was elected to go into the lobby, alone, and rent out one large room. The rest of us less presentable folk were in the back, waiting to sneak up a side staircase. Instead, Iggy decided we deserved a room with a bit more luxury and a bit more room, so instead of doing what I asked, he rented out the largest, most expensive, most conspicuous room in the whole hotel. I was still surprised she gave it to him, considering he still looked pretty grimy. I said it was because hotels only speak one language: credit card. Iggy insists it was his charm.

So, anyway, the presidential suite is decorated in beige and yellow tones. We have a large kitchen, three king size beds, two bathrooms, three balconies, one sitting room, and one "family room" with a very large television. Our suite alone took up the whole top floor. This I could get used to. But I knew it couldn't last.

----x----

After Nudge and I had taken very long, very hot showers that seemed to wash all the dirt off, we were sitting on the beds in "my" room with Gazzy and Total (Fang and Iggy got in the showers after us, and Gazzy and Total were next). Nudge, curling up next to me in her fuzzy bathrobe supplied by the hotel, flicked on the TV and rested on CNN. Seeing the pretty newswoman say they were going to a story about a top secret facility in California, my stomach tied in knots. Nervously, I pulled on the hem of the new shirt that I had bought earlier that day.

"Three days ago, a government building burned to the ground in the woods of Southern California," the woman said. "The blame for the fire is being placed on a chemical reaction that occurred in a laboratory. So far, there are no survivors and no remains found. The police have told us that the employees have most likely fled the premises because the building was ordered to be shut down ten years ago for doing and inhumane genetic experiments on children. The official police statement says that they believe the building was kept open illegally by the scientists who refused to give up their research. We now go live to Mike Fijuaka at the site. Mike?" Of course we knew they were talking about the School. I could tell the others knew too because Nudge was suddenly tense beside me and Gazzy had stopped playing chess with Total. They were listening.

"Thank you, Jessica," Mike said, as the camera cut to him. At first, all I could see was his shockingly white teeth, but then I noticed the background, which was indeed the smoldering remains of the School. Fire fighters were running around in the distance, making sure the fire was completely out and searching for remains. "As she said, the fire is believed to be caused by a chemical reaction that went wrong, setting the whole building ablaze. The truth, of course, is unknown as there are no eye witnesses, but from what we can speculate, we believe this is the place where the famous 'bird kids' were created." Gazzy made a sound of disgust in the back of his throat at the word 'created'.

"And their dog. Why do they always forget the dog?" Total complained.

"You were created in New York, anyway," Nudge said to him. He opened his mouth to retaliate, but I hushed them both.

"This," Mike continued, as the camera panned out to reveal a dirty firefighter standing beside him, "is Eric Eerie. He was one of the first to arrive on the scene. Now, can you tell me again what you saw?"

"I just remember seeing this wolf like things emerging from that hanger," Eric says, pointing to where the Flyboys used to be stored. "Only they could fly. They flew, but they caught on fire and their furry skin stuff peeled away, and they were made of metal. There were millions and millions of wolf looking robots, and they all tried to fly out but then they seemed to die at the same time, and they crashed into the ground, just a burning metal heap. It smelled real strange, too, like burning rubber." The reporter smiled at Eric.

"These may have been the same flying robots that we have on film from awhile ago. It seems that of they are the same, this is indeed the same place where the bird kids were created. We have sent the videos to experts to have them compare and analyze."

"We probably would have been able to save part of the building if we weren't distracted by the wolf robots," Eric continued. "But it was pretty much a goner when we arrived. We just did our best to stop it from spreading."

"Thank you, Eric, for your bystander account. We will have more details on this story as it comes." Nudge clicked off the TV, and we sat in silence for awhile. Finally, Gazzy spoke.

"Wow," he said simply. "Wow. Does this mean no more flyboys, like, ever?" He said. He sounded a little disappointed.

"I don't know, sweetie," I said, scratching Total behind his ear.

"Max," Nudge said seriously. "They said t hey didn't find any bodies. Does that mean Jeb and Omega made it?" Her voice was impossible to read.

"Again, I don't know. If they did, I expect they will track us down soon."

"What do you say we find an Island? Drop of the map?" Fang said, from the doorway. I was a little surprised because I hadn't heard him, and I wonder how long he had been standing there. Fang's words caught me a little off guard. Those were the exact same words he had said to me before. Last time I had shot his idea down without a second thought. Now…

Fang still stood, towel thrown over his shoulder, hair still damp from his shower. He had on his usual black t shirt, but he had traded the black pants for some dark blue jeans. It wasn't much, but I was working on him. His eyes looked hopeful. He knew he had won.

"I think…" I said. The flock was all looking at me, expectantly. "I think that's a great idea."

----x----

_While this chapter is not my best work, I like it because it is left open. You don't know if Omega and Jeb escaped, you don't know what will happen to the flock. Stay tuned for the epilogue to find out!_

_~Sari_


	24. Epilouge

_I am actually extremely happy with this last chapter! It has lots of magic, and that makes me happy. I just wanted to thank everyone who commented me, or added me to their favorite authors list or story alerts list. Your encouragement really helped to keep me writing when I was stuck. To my fabulous ex beta, Clyde, for giving me confidence in writing, for editing numerous copies, and for PM'ing me to ask me if I'd been kidnapped when I didn't send her anything for a few weeks. This story has seen numerous drafts, ups, and downs, and I have to say I'm proud of the final draft. I hope you've enjoyed reading this story as much as I have enjoyed writing it. :) _

_~Sari_

----x----

Everything was perfect. The long grass that surrounded me was a deep emerald green and was soft, tickling my back as I lay on it. It smelled sweet, yet strange at the same time, as only wild grass can. I could hear the soft trickling of the lake as it lapped the shore on which I lay, and the soft buzz of bugs unseen.

The wind blew softly, blowing a strand of my blonde hair around my face. I tucked it behind my ear. The sun's soft, golden glow warmed my face, calming my worried thoughts. As the wind blew again, my thoughts, my worries, my fears, drifted away, just like the tiny white seeds of the dandelion in my hand… I inhaled slowly, closing my eyes, wanting to bottle this moment of calm forever.

Lately, the Flyboy attacks had become less and less frequent, and then they seemed to stop all together. We had gone nearly three weeks now without having to fight for our lives.

My flock and I were enjoying this luxurious vacation, let me tell you. We were near a lake, deep inside a lush and picturesque forest that seemed undisturbed for years. It was the perfect hiding place. The only signs of human life we had seen in this week or so we had been living here was a small, deserted cabin, which we now occupied. It had taken awhile to clean the cobwebs and dust away, but now it was starting to look like home.

I felt a presence and my eyes opened lazily, grazing the field around me. Nudge was walking through the tall grass, her dark, curly hair blowing wildly around her face, with Total trailing behind her. She was picking flowers and putting them into a basket. I smiled, thinking how this could defiantly be a Hallmark Card moment. I nearly laughed to myself as I remembered all the violent things that little twelve year old had done, and how until a week ago, she had been so dirty I didn't even know what color her skin really was.

It seemed like we could live forever in this isolated woodland of ours, and nothing could touch us. It felt like we could finally just_ be_, leaving our home only to buy food or other essentials. It was peaceful. It was bliss. I had to keep reminding myself that it wouldn't last. It was probably the calm before the storm. I closed my eyes and drifted. We were safe, and we were together.

----x----

"_No, please!" I pleaded, as the white coats approached Gazzy's dog crate, across from mine. I was exhausted, and my voice was horse from yelling, but still I screamed. "Take me instead!" Their blank, emotionless faces turned away from me and unlatched his crate, dragging him, crying, from the room. _

_Panicked, I tried to unlock the door to my own crate, though I knew it wasn't possible. I was vaguely aware of myself weeping as I threw myself against the cold, steel bars again and again._

_They had taken them all, and I had no idea where. I didn't know if I'd ever see them again, or if they were ok, or even if they were alive. They had taken Fang first, seeing him as the biggest threat. We had been able to hear his screaming as they tortured him, until slowly the screams began to fade away. Then they came for Nudge. They had taken Iggy from me just this morning, and now they had taken Gazzy too. _

_My fists were bleeding from the cuts I had inflicted upon myself. If I could just see one of them, if I knew just one of them was ok, I knew that I could make it. Until then, I'd keep trying to break this metal crate around me. _

_I stopped only to wipe the tears that were running down my face uncontrollably. And then, I heard the Gasman's blood curling scream. I was frozen, petrified, as the sound echoed in the laboratory around me. Before the echo even died away, another scream began. _

_Feeling my energy renewed, I shook and rattled and punched the cage with greater strength as adrenaline filled me. I was pissed off now. How could someone torture a little kid? They were evil, so evil. I could hear him struggling, but I knew he didn't stand a chance. _

_I focused all my furry, ignoring my ruined and gory hands, just pounding at the blood streaked bars. I didn't feel any pain: just thinking of the pain that Gazzy was presently dealing with was more than enough to endure the pain in my hands. _

_Then with one, final scream, it grew silent. Even the echo faded away. The quiet became too much for me to bear now. I think I talked to myself, screamed a bit, but I hardly remember. I was reeling from too much grief to consider what I was doing. Because I knew Gazzy was gone._

_Finally, someone entered the lab I was being held in. _This was it_. They were finally coming for me. There were four of them, all strong men, and when they dragged me from the cage, gripping my arms, I barley put up a fight. I tried to kick and punch and struggle, but I was too weak from starvation, dehydration and pain._

_They took me to a small, glass incased room filled with padding, and threw me unceremoniously inside. Instantly, I was on my feet, feebly pounding on the door and splattering gore on the wall. Normally, I may have put at least a dent in the wall, but in my weakened condition, it did nothing. There was no escape. I looked around. It was an empty room, about the size of a closet, and fairly dark. _

_As I let out a scream of rage for allowing this to happen, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. To anyone else, it would have looked merely like a black lump, but I knew him so well I could recognize him even in this condition._

_  
"Fang," I breathed, relief and tears and emotion in that one word that meant so much. He was hunched on the ground and very still. I ran to him and hesitantly touched his shoulder, but he didn't stir. He was unconscious, and very bloody. His arm was broken so badly that the bone was nearly piercing his skin. I put my face to his chest and listened hard. He was still alive, but the beating of his heart very weak._

_Tears brewed behind my eyelids at seeing him so broken like this. I drew him carefully into my arms. I looked out the solid glass window in front of me to what appeared to be another laboratory. White coats were messing with the numerous machines that were stacked there, turning knobs and pressing buttons._

"_Where are we?" I screamed, to no one in particular. I waited patiently for a white coat to come over the loud speaker and tell me exactly what was going on, but to my irritation, no one did. _

You're at the School_, the voice told me, almost sadly._

No shit, Sherlock_, I thought back fiercely. Where had it been all this time when I'd been asking it other questions? _Where in the School? What are they going to do to us? Where are the others? _I could hardly contain myself. Finally, some answers._

The others have all been terminated. You and Fang are next, _it told me, sounding regretful. My mouth dropped open, though I didn't notice it. Agony filled me, threatening to rip me in half. I subconsciously hugged Fang's limp body closer. Faintly, I heard a click noise, then a loud whirring sound, and a small hole opened in the wall. I glanced nervously at it. _

What is that?_ I though desperately to the voice, suddenly feeling very scared. A strange greenish blue vapor started coming out of the hole, and like spilled ink, it slowly began to spread._

That is a very poisonous and instantly lethal gas. You're being terminated now, Max_, the voice said. _I'm sorry_, it added, almost like an afterthought. As soon as the word terminated was in my mind, the voice fell away, and I went into survival mode. Grasping Fang's barley alive body, I dragged him to the far corner of the box, away from the gas that was crawling towards us._

_Why did it have to end like this? I wasn't ready to die! I'd tried to do what I was supposed to. I was mostly a good kid. My breathing became fast and quick as I started to panic. Maybe this really was the end._

_The strange colored gas was closer now. Inching its way across the room, filling every crevice with its murderousness, getting closer and closer to Fang and I with every second. It seemed to stretch out in vines, crawling closer and closer, until finally, a tongue reached out and tickled my leg. I could feel it tingling as it spread up my body, covering me, threatening to poison my lungs. I held my breath, hoping, maybe, maybe I could still get out of this unscathed…_

_I didn't want to die. Not here, not in this horrible place. I wanted to die when I was really old and happy and ready, with all of my flock surrounding me. I guess we never did get a choice in our own lives, though. _

_My head was starting to spin now, and I was getting dizzy. I didn't think I could hold my breath for much longer. I looked down at Fang's bloody and scarred face one last time. He was probably dead already. I felt horrible for allowing this to happen to everyone. _

_It was then that I opened my lips and sucked in a much needed breath. I gasped greedily, sucking in as much of the foul air as I could, until again I started to feel light headed. This gas apparently did work very quickly._

_My mind started to fade, though my memories flashed vibrantly before me. My eyes blinked once, and then everything started to fade away to black, as I embraced the death I couldn't avoid any longer. I screamed……… And then there was nothing._

----x----

My eyes flew open, and I sat up quickly, panting and savoring the cool, nontoxic air that surrounded me. _Calm down_, I told myself, willing my heart to stop racing. _It was just a dream._ I shook my head to clear my lingering scared thoughts racing in my mind. I was still in the meadow, safe and sound. But I knew the sound of my scream was still echoing in my head.

I looked around the field, wondering what had woken me. It was darker outside now, maybe an hour from twilight. Nudge had probably long since returned to the cabin, but she had left a chain of daisies beside me.

"Max? You ok?" Someone asked. Fang was crouching next to me, and when I looked at him, a worried expression was on his face. Giving out a strangled cry, I threw my arms around his neck and pulled him into an awkward hug. He tensed, obviously surprised, but then his arms circled me and he hugged me back.

I pulled back after a few seconds, embarrassed at my short-lived emotion. "Uh, sorry," I said, lying on my back again. I was still getting used to this. Fang and I.

"That certainly was the most enthusiastic hello I've ever gotten," he said quietly, sitting beside me. He waited, obviously wanting me to explain my unorthodox behavior. "Bad dream?" He finally guessed.

"Yeah," I said, and left it at that. After a moment, he began to pick at the grass, pulling blades up and twirling them between his fingers. Above us, the sky was changing into a myriad of shades of red and blue mixing together as the sun started to sink behind the mountains. The first fireflies had started to emerge from their hiding places, supplying a soft glow.

"What do you think is going to happen to us? You know, after the whole saving the world thing?" I asked him. At first I thought his silence was his answer, but then when I looked up at his face, fixated on the infinite blue above us, I knew he was merely thinking.

"I don't know." He said finally. Fang uncrossed his legs and lay down next to me. Above us, the fireflies were still swirling, and as the sky darkened, they were joined by stars, which were blinking on like light bulbs. "Maybe we'll stay undercover. Maybe we'll try to blend with society. Who knows? We might be big celebrities." Again we fell silent, watching the fireflies and the stars, listening to the lake. It was almost magical, almost perfect like this.

"Nothing will be the same, no matter what happens." I said. He nodded his agreement. I felt a light touch on my shoulder and saw Fang tracing the deep scar on my shoulder from my fight with Omega. His face looked pained.

"It's not your fault," I whispered softly to him.

"I know," he whispered back. A thought occurred to me, and my heart sped up, until I was sure even Fang could feel its pounding. I felt my cheeks grow red and hot, and then I reached over and placed my hand gently over Fang's. I felt shy and very tentative, not knowing how he'd react.

Fang turned his hand upward, so our palms met, and he laced his fingers through mine like it was the most natural thing in the world that we should be here, holding hands. And that's when I knew we'd be ok. Yes, Angel was gone. Yes, we still had to take down Itex and save the world from everyone who was threatening its existence. But I realized that the emptiness inside me was finally gone. I felt whole and happy. The great weight that seemed to have been holding me down was lifted, and I felt lighter than air.

All the empty spaces had been filled. We didn't have everything we needed, and we weren't living in the ideal world, but we had each other. A ways off, we could hear Gazzy and Nudge laughing, and the swoosh as their feathers slicing through the air as they circled higher. Fang eyes strayed away from mine and up to the sky, and mine did too. I could hear someone flying in our general direction.

"FOUND THEM!" I heard Gazzy yell at the top of his lungs, pointing down at us and looking over his shoulder at Nudge, who was flying to join him. "Iggy says dinner is ready," he called down to us. When Nudge flew to a stop next to him and saw that Gazzy really did find Fang and I, she scowled. "I win!" He cried triumphantly. "That means you have to clean up after dinner," he reminded her.

"Damn," Nudge swore, shaking her head, and hovering in the air beside him.

"Language!" I shouted up to her, pushing myself up onto my elbows, though I never let go of Fang's hand. Nudge ignored me.

"Hey Gazzy, I'll race you back to the house. Loser does the other person's chores all day tomorrow."

"You're on. Ready, set, go!" Gazzy counted off quickly, and then they became a blur of feathers as they both darted across the sky towards the cabin.

"I guess we better go, then," I sighed, hating to leave this place where I felt so safe. Fang stood up and pulled me to my feet, never letting go of my hand. I liked the way his hand felt in mine, soft but calloused at the same time. In the distance, we could see the cabin lit up, and inside I could see my family, laughing like there wasn't a care in the world. I could smell the clean air and the grass and the wild flowers. I could hear the crickets calling out. And I could taste the freedom.

We'd been lucky escaping Itex the way we did. But next time? And the time after that? When would our luck run out again? Who would die this time? Fang squeezed my hand. "Max? You ok?" I banished the negative thoughts from my mind and smiled at him. He smiled back, and I felt the full brilliance of its light. We were fine, and we were safe. For now. And maybe that was all that mattered.

_**THE END….?**_

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	25. AUTHOR NOTE

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_Hello, my readers! Long time no see! You may be wondering WHYYYY I am posting on this story after so long of an absence. Well, if you care to find out, read on!_

_I am working on a new one shot, and was feeling very down on my writing ability so I decided to reread my comments on this story to boost my confidence. As I did this, I noticed that there were A LOT of comments about me killing off Angel, and how upset people were, and how it wasn't necessary. That is why I am taking time out of my busy schedule to explain myself to you. _

_POINT 1: As everyone knows, Angel can read minds. If she had been alive, she would only need to read Fang's thoughts and find out why he was so upset. She could then explain it to the flock, and as everyone knows, Fang would never have gone to the school because they would have talked him out of it, etc. Or, he would have gone, but his sacrifice would have been for nothing because the others would have been aware of the testing, which made his agreement with Jeb void. Jeb made Fang promise not to tell because if they knew that it was the drug that was making him so angry/ violent, they would have avoided him until it was done, and the experiment would have been pointless. Long story short, Angel needed to die so that no one in the flock would know about Fang being tested on again._

_POINT 2: As most discussed in the story, Jeb said Fang needed to come to the school for testing "or else". Killing/ hurting the flock is the only way to threaten Fang, so that is what happened. If Fang didn't think that Jeb was serious about hurting the flock, he would never have submitted himself for testing. It was only the fear for the rest of the flock that caused him to go back to the school. _

_POINT 3: By killing a member of the flock so quickly and so gravely injuring the others, we see that Omega has truly been modified and is far superior to the flock. _

_POINT 4: Max would never have questioned Fang's loyalty for anything less than one of the flock being killed. If she didn't question his loyalty, there would be no, or a much shorter, story._

_POINT 5 (skip this point if you are looking for real evidence): I am the writer, and it is what I think should have happened! So there! : )_

_There you have it! Stay tuned for more information on my coming one shot! _

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_~Sari_


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